When a workday will be spent in a manhole, the cardinal rule is always: Be safe. A manhole is vertical and confined — two conditions that lead to falls and to being felled by dropped tools — and could be rife with deadly gases. Entering such a workspace casually is asking for trouble.
“I’ve heard stories about pre-OSHA days when people would jump in a manhole to do the work, and if they started feeling lightheaded, they’d jump out,” says Russell Shoats, project manager at TLC Plumbing & Utility in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Like most firms today, TLC embraces OSHA regulations
