Confined Space in Construction or General Industry?
Which confined space course your crew needs comes down to the standard your site runs under. Construction work sits under 29 CFR 1926 Subpart AA, which is this page. Facilities that are operated and maintained sit under 29 CFR 1910.146, which is a separate course. The person who authorizes and cancels permits has one of their own on top.
- Confined Space in Construction (this page). For crews building, altering, repairing or demolishing, where the space is part of the job in front of them. Built to 29 CFR 1926 Subpart AA, which carries duties general industry does not, including the competent person who identifies the spaces before work starts. Two hours, and there is a Spanish course alongside it. View the Confined Space in Construction (this page)
- Confined Space (General Industry). For crews who operate and maintain a fixed facility: plants, warehouses, treatment works, utilities. Built to 29 CFR 1910.146, the general industry permit-required confined spaces standard. Same entry team, same hazards, a different rulebook and a different set of employer duties. View the Confined Space (General Industry)
- Confined Space Supervisor. For the person who signs the permit, sets the acceptable entry conditions and calls the entry off. It sits on top of an entrant-level course rather than replacing it, so a supervisor who also enters spaces takes both. View the Confined Space Supervisor
Start with the work, not the job title. A crew building or repairing takes the construction course; a crew running a facility takes the general industry one. Add the supervisor course for whoever signs the permit. If your site is doing both, buy for each crew separately.
Who Identifies the Confined Spaces on a Construction Site?
Under 29 CFR 1926.1203(a), a competent person has to identify every confined space on the site before work begins, and flag which of them are permit spaces. That duty sits with a named person, ahead of everything else in the standard, and it changes what a trained crew is for.
- Somebody has to find the spaces before the crew meets them. 1926.1203(a) puts that on a competent person, before work starts, for every space a crew they direct might work in. Testing is part of it where testing is what settles the question.
- The information has to move between the employers on site. 1926.1203 runs the host employer, the controlling contractor and each entry employer as a chain. Space locations, hazards and any previous precautions get passed down, findings get passed back, and everyone debriefs after the entry. Where there is no controlling contractor, the host employer carries it.
- A sign only works on someone who knows what it means. The standard has the employer post danger signs or use equally effective means. That is only protection if the worker walking past it can tell a permit space from an ordinary opening. Recognition is what this course builds, in two hours, for everyone you send on site.
- The site supplies the program. The crew supplies the recognition. The written program, the meters, the ventilation, the attendant and the rescue arrangement come from the employer. What the course adds is a crew who can read a permit, notice a space nobody flagged, and say so before anyone climbs in.
Buy it for the people who will be standing next to the spaces your competent person is about to list.
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