Occupational Health and Safety Act, 1993 (Act No. 85 of 1993)RegulationsElectrical Machinery Regulations, 201121. Overhead line crossings |
| (1) | Where a power line crosses a proclaimed road, railway or tramway, or a conductive communication line, the supplier, employer or user shall cause the clearance to comply with the requirements of regulation 19, and shall further cause— |
| (a) | every structure supporting a crossing span to be designed in such a manner that it will be able to withstand the loads that may be imposed upon it should a breakage of any phase conductor or earth conductor occur; |
| (b) | every structure supporting a crossing span, as far as is reasonably practicable, to be located so that it will not touch the service crossed, should it overturn; |
| (c) | subject to the restrictions referred to in paragraph (b), one of the structures supporting a crossing span to be located as close to the point of crossing as is reasonably practicable; |
| (d) | the clearance of the crossing span where it crosses a proclaimed road to be not less than 4,5 m in the case of a broken-phase conductor in a span other than the crossing span; |
| (e) | armour rods, arcing horns or other proven methods to be fitted at the live ends of suspension and rigid insulators on at least the first three structures on each side of the crossing if the maximum voltage for which the power line is designed exceeds 1,1 kV rms; alternatively, duplicate conductors, tied together at intervals of not more than 1,5 m shall be provided in the crossing span and shall be supported by duplicate parallel insulators, and for lines on rigid insulators the duplicate conductors shall extend at least 1,5 m beyond the supports on each side of the crossing span; and |
| (f) | all crossings over services, including conductive communication lines, shall be mutually agreed between the power line user or supplier and the communications line user or user of other services. |
| (2) | The supplier, employer or user shall cause every overhead service connection that crosses over bare conductive communication lines of the communication network to have minimum clearances between the overhead service connection and the conductive communication lines at the points of crossing of 0,5 m and the overhead service connection shall not cross below bare conductive communication lines. |