Gorilla Post Helps Construction Safety Engineers Meet OSHA Regulations

Malcolm Drilling is one of the largest specialty drilling and deep foundation contractors in North America. Malcolm has come up with an ingenious application for the Gorilla Post Magnetic Mounting System that takes the Gorilla Post into a whole new industry. This application also satisfies a specific health and safety regulation for construction.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) oversees and enforces standards for a safe and healthful working environment. OSHA has regulations regarding work area control around Cranes & Derricks in Construction (Number 1926.1424) addressing Swing Radius Hazards. The requirements apply where there are accessible areas in which the equipment's rotating superstructure poses a reasonably foreseeable risk of striking and injuring or pinching/crushing an employee against another part of the equipment or another object. To prevent employees from entering these hazard areas, the employer must erect and maintain control lines, railings or similar barriers to mark the boundaries of the Swing/Crush Hazard Zone. In simple terms, a rotating crane can cause a lot of harm to a person standing too close.

For eight consecutive years, Malcolm Drilling has received the ADSC-IAFD Safety Award (The International Association of Foundation Drilling). These awards are presented annually to recognize outstanding achievement in combined field and shop safety efforts of ADSC Contractor and Associate Member companies.

Malcolm has worked hard to obtain the excellent safety program and record they have today. They are very innovative in protecting their employees and that record.

Malcolm has met the OSHA 1926.1424 regulation that requires the safe visual and physical radius clearance at all of their construction sites, by mounting Gorilla Post Magnetic Delineators directly onto their cranes. Gorilla Posts use rare earth neodymium magnets that have a magnetic pull of 380 psi. Gorilla Posts have a pivoting spring base which is impact-resistant yet flexes if it hits an employee or object. Should Malcolm need to remove the posts, there is an ergonomic removal tool that breaks the industrial-strength magnetic coupling allowing quick, temporary removal of the Gorilla Post.

Normally, construction companies place railings or barricades on the ground around their cranes to satisfy OSHA regulations. “Our cranes are constantly on the move on a job site,” explained Joel Sayre from the Seattle Office, “the Gorilla Post allows us to change locations without having to remove and reposition the warning barricades. It’s time and labor-saving.” Additionally, Sayre stated, “OSHA had come out to the job site and was satisfied that we’d covered all the requirements of the Swing Radius Hazards regulation.”

Originally, the Gorilla Post Magnetic Mounting System was created by Pacific Cascade Corporation (ParkingZone) out of a need to reserve individual parking spaces when municipalities started to replace single-space parking meters with block-wide pay stations. Cities wanted a tamper-resistant method to reserve parking spaces even without an adjacent single-space meter which previously could be covered with a “No Parking” bag.

Lyle Peters, Director of U.S. Sales for the Gorilla Post has promoted many applications for the Gorilla Post over and above its original function. “This is something we didn’t think of as a team,” said Peters. “It’s thinking “outside-the-box” companies like Malcolm who find new, innovative applications for the Gorilla Post.”

Pacific Cascade Corporation is the developer of the Gorilla Post system with numerous domestic and international patents on the magnetic mounting system.

About Gorilla Post

The Gorilla Post system revolutionized the parking industry by using neodymium magnets to lock the rugged delineators, signposts, and bollards into a precise position. An ergonomic tool lifts the industrial-strength magnets to allow quick, temporary removal of the impact-resistant signposts and delineators. The systems magnetic base plate is ADA-compliant.

Over the years, customers have discovered additional applications for the strong, pedestrian-friendly system at warehouses, loading docks, factory floors, warehouses, amusement parks, sports venues, neighborhood special events, car washes, airports, school lunchrooms, multi-space parking meter installations and dozens of other places.