Report of the MCAA Safety and Technical Committee

I would like to begin by informing the Board of the merging of the Safety and Technical Committees. We found that these two committees had overlapping issues and members, thus making the logical transition to combining these committees into one dynamic committee of contractors. Starting this year, you will see some significant changes to this joint committee. Our goal is to develop the Safety and Technical Committee to a working committee that will make key safety and technical decisions and help support our staff engineer on many of these issues.

OSHA Issues
OSHA / MCAA Alliance
Our Director of Engineering, Rashod Johnson and Marian Marshall, our Director of Governmental Affairs, have been working very hard to resolve a multitude of issues with OSHA on the National level. The most important of these items was the signing of an Alliance between OSHA and MCAA members. This Alliance with OSHA will allow MCAA to develop training programs for wall bracing, scaffolding safety and fall protection, rough terrain forklift training, and silicosis. Though this is a great accomplishment for our Association, it will require the MCAA Safety and Technical Committee to develop safety and training programs for our contractors to adequately comply with the OSHA Alliance guidelines. Only members of MCAA will be allowed to participate in this Alliance that will give our members some leverage when dealing with OSHA on the regional and local levels. Rashod and Marian will spearhead this effort, so let us make sure we support them in every possible way.

Material Storage on Scaffolding
There were also a few follow-up items from a meeting MCAA had at OSHA's Directorate of Construction last August. The first was Material Storage on Scaffolding - 29 CFR 1926.250(b)(5) and 1926.451(f)(3). OSHA released an interpretation of this Regulation that required all mason contractors to remove all of their materials from the scaffolding at the end of every workday. Upon finding out about this interpretation, the MCAA set up a meeting in Washington DC with OSHA and quickly resolved this issue. The result was OSHA rescinding the original letter of interpretation and issuing an alternate letter that allowed mason contractors to store a limited amount of material on the scaffolding. The full letter of interpretation can be downloaded from the Codes and Standards section of the MCAA website.

Scaffolding Access using Integral Ladders
Another item that resulted from the August 2003 meeting was the issue of Scaffolding Access through Integral Ladders - 29 CFR 1926.451(e). Again, OSHA released a letter to Non-Stop Scaffolding that essentially make it illegal for any contractor to used Non-Stop Scaffolding's integral ladder system. The MCAA quickly contacted OSHA and worked out a compromise that will allow all contractors who use Non-Stop scaffolding to continue using it with no penalty from OSHA. The details of this issue are still being sorted out, but we are confident that this will result in a fair compromise for OSHA, MCAA members, Non-Stop Scaffolding, and most of all our workers.

NIOSH Masonry Ergonomic Summit
A few months ago, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) contacted MCAA to sit on a planning committee to develop a "Best Practices" document that will help avoid the muskoskeletal disorders masons are being diagnosed with. This planning summit will take place on March 29 and 30, 2004 in Cincinnati, OH. MCAA's Director of Engineering along with some key contractors will be in attendance at this meeting. Meetings such as these prove that the MCAA is becoming the lead voice for the masonry industry for safety and health issues on the national level.

For more information on these topics, please refer to the MCAA Legislative report.

Codes and Standards
Council for Masonry Research
The Council for Masonry Research (CMR) is the technical committee for the Masonry Industry Council. CMR is working on a variety of issues, however the most urgent is the research on masonry design boundary limits. At last year's Midyear Meeting, we heard from John Tawresey concerning this issue and the possible impact on the masonry industry. CMR has committed to funding research and take a lead role in monitoring and researching boundary elements for masonry design. Our CMR and MIC representatives are working hard within this committee to ensure the contractor's voice stays strong. Another important issue is the Department of Defense issue as raised in the last year's Midyear Report. CMR has developed and sent a letter to the DoD criticizing its life cycle cost analysis and providing details of the inaccuracies of their report. CMR is currently waiting for the DoD response.

Masonry Standards Joint Committee The Masonry Standards Joint Committee is done working on all new issues for the 2005 Code cycle. There are many changes, but the two most important are steel boundary limitations and the grout lift increase. John Tawresey gave a brief report to the members about steel limits at the Midyear annual meeting in San Diego, CA. The MSJC Committee has approved increasing the grout pour height from 4 feet to 10 feet for the 2005 Masonry Code. This is great news for those contractors who do a large amount of grouting in concrete masonry construction and should greatly improve productivity when grouting. This will not be effective until the 2005 Masonry Code is adopted in the National and local Building Codes. For more information about these topics, contact Rashod R. Johnson at rjohnson@masoncontractors.org.

ASTM Workmanship Standard The Workmanship Standard is in its final revision and will be balloted soon in the next ASTM ballot. The results of this ballot will be critical in the publishing of this document.

Wall Bracing Handbook
Wall Bracing Design Seminar
On September 25, 2003, the MCAA held its first Educational Seminar in the new MCAA National Headquarters. The seminar was The Masonry Wall Bracing Design Course and was taught by Rashod R. Johnson. It was developed to provide contractors with the know-how to confidently design and construct bracing for a variety of common masonry structures. Over 20 contractors from all over the country attended the seminar and left with a better understanding of masonry wall bracing. Rashod has since then conducted 2 more wall bracing seminars and will be teaching four more over the next year, including one at this year's 2004 Masonry Showcase.