Texas Contractor Exam — All Questions

An employee believes a serious hazard exists on his site and wants OSHA to look at it. What does federal law provide?

• a.He may complain only through his employer's internal safety committee
• b.He may complain to OSHA only after giving the employer 30 days' notice
• c.He may complain, but the employer may reassign him to less-desirable work
• d.He may request an inspection, and may not be fired for doing so✓

Section 8(f)(1) of the OSH Act lets employees or their representatives request an inspection by giving notice of a violation or an imminent danger, and Section 11(c) makes it unlawful to discharge or in any manner discriminate against an employee for filing a complaint or exercising any right afforded by the Act. A worker who believes he was retaliated against may file a complaint with the Secretary of Labor within 30 days of the retaliation. No advance notice to the employer is required.

A general contractor's superintendent walks past an unguarded floor opening created and used by a subcontractor's crew. Under OSHA's multi-employer citation policy:

• a.Only the subcontractor may be cited, because only its employees are exposed
• b.Only the owner may be cited, because the owner holds title to the property
• c.The general contractor may also be cited as the controlling employer✓
• d.No one may be cited until an injury actually occurs at that floor opening

OSHA's multi-employer citation policy recognizes creating, exposing, correcting, and controlling employers, and more than one of them may be cited for the same hazardous condition. A general contractor with general supervisory authority over the site is typically a controlling employer, expected to exercise reasonable care to detect and correct hazards even where the exposed workers belong to a subcontractor. Citations turn on the hazard and the employer's role, not on whether anyone was hurt.

Under 29 CFR 1926, what is the employer's basic duty regarding worker safety training?

• a.To instruct each employee in recognizing and avoiding unsafe conditions✓
• b.To send every employee to a 30-hour outreach course before starting work
• c.To post the standards in the site trailer, which satisfies the training duty
• d.To train the foremen, who then decide what their own crews need to know

29 CFR 1926.21(b)(2) requires the employer to instruct each employee in the recognition and avoidance of unsafe conditions and in the regulations applicable to the work environment, and 1926.20(b) requires an accident prevention program with frequent and regular inspections by competent persons. A competent person is one who can identify existing and predictable hazards and has authority to take prompt corrective action. OSHA's 10- and 30-hour outreach courses are useful but are not a federal requirement for construction work.

Before operating a crane near overhead power lines rated up to 350 kV, OSHA requires the employer to determine whether any part of the equipment, load line or load could come closer than what distance?

• a.20 feet✓
• b.10 feet
• c.15 feet
• d.50 feet

29 CFR 1926.1408(a)(2) sets a 20-foot trigger; inside it the employer must either confirm the line is deenergized and visibly grounded, maintain 20 feet using the listed encroachment precautions, or determine the voltage and work to the smaller Table A minimum approach distance. The 10-foot figure belongs to the scaffold rule for lines under 50 kV and to older general-industry practice, not to crane operations. Neither 15 nor 50 feet appears as the trigger.

Under OSHA's construction fire-protection standard, how must portable fire extinguishers be distributed through a protected building area?

• a.One rated at least 2A on each floor
• b.One rated at least 10B for each 3,000 square feet of protected area
• c.A 2A-rated unit per 3,000 square feet, within 100 feet of travel✓
• d.One of any rating within 75 feet of any point in the protected building area

29 CFR 1926.150(c)(1)(i) states both halves of the rule: a 2A extinguisher for each 3,000 square feet or major fraction of it, and a travel distance to the nearest extinguisher not exceeding 100 feet. A separate paragraph does also require at least one per floor, so that is a floor beneath the rule rather than the whole of it. The 10B rating belongs to the flammable-liquid requirement, and 75 feet is not an OSHA construction figure.

A crew keeps 20 gallons of gasoline on site to fuel equipment. What does OSHA's construction standard require nearby?

• a.An extinguisher rated not less than 2A within 50 feet
• b.An extinguisher rated not less than 10B within 100 feet
• c.An extinguisher rated not less than 10B within 50 feet✓
• d.A charged garden hose within 100 feet

29 CFR 1926.150(c)(1)(vi) requires an extinguisher rated not less than 10B within 50 feet wherever more than 5 gallons of flammable or combustible liquid, or 5 pounds of flammable gas, are in use, with the integral fuel tanks of motor vehicles excluded. A 2A rating is for ordinary combustibles and will not extinguish a liquid fire, so the B rating is the one that matters here. The 100-foot travel distance and the garden-hose substitution belong to the general 2A requirement, not to this one.

Normal fire-prevention precautions are not enough for a cutting job inside an occupied building. Under 29 CFR 1926.352, how long must the additional personnel assigned to guard against fire remain?

• a.Only while sparks and slag are actually being produced by the torch
• b.For exactly 30 minutes after the work stops, as the standard specifies
• c.Until the area has been rechecked at the next scheduled safety meeting
• d.During the work and for a sufficient period afterward to ensure no fire is possible✓

Paragraph (e) requires the fire watch during the operation and for a sufficient period of time after completion of the work to ensure that no possibility of fire exists, and requires those personnel to be instructed on the specific hazards and on how to use the firefighting equipment. The construction standard fixes no clock, so 30 minutes, a figure drawn from consensus standards and written into many contracts, is not what 1926.352 says. Leaving when the sparks stop misses exactly the smoldering ignition the rule exists to catch.

A crew is laying a masonry wall 12 feet high. How wide must the limited access zone be, and on which side of the wall?

• a.12 feet, on the scaffolded side where the masons are working
• b.16 feet, on the unscaffolded side✓
• c.6 feet, on both sides of the wall for its entire length
• d.20 feet, on either side

29 CFR 1926.706(a)(2) sets the zone equal to the height of the wall to be constructed plus four feet, so 12 plus 4 gives 16 feet, and 1926.706(a)(3) puts it on the side that will be unscaffolded, because that is the side an unbraced wall falls toward and where no one needs to be. It runs the full length of the wall, and only employees actively engaged in building the wall may enter it.

Under OSHA's masonry standard, at what height must a masonry wall be braced until permanent supporting elements are in place?

• a.Over eight feet✓
• b.Over four feet
• c.Over six feet
• d.Over twelve feet

29 CFR 1926.706(b) requires all masonry walls over eight feet in height to be adequately braced against overturning and collapse unless they are otherwise adequately supported, and the bracing must stay until the permanent structure supports the wall. Below that height the limited access zone stays in place until the wall is adequately supported. Four and six feet are fall-protection trigger heights elsewhere in Part 1926, not the masonry bracing height.

Before employees start demolition work, what does OSHA require?

• a.A verbal walkthrough by the site superintendent, noted in the daily report
• b.An asbestos and lead survey, which also satisfies the structural requirement
• c.Written notice to the building department at least 48 hours before work begins
• d.A written engineering survey by a competent person✓

29 CFR 1926.850(a) requires the engineering survey by a competent person, requires that adjacent structures where employees may be exposed be checked the same way, and requires the employer to have written evidence that the survey was performed. A verbal walkthrough leaves no such evidence. An asbestos survey is separately required but does not satisfy this rule, and any advance notice to the building department is a local permit matter rather than an OSHA requirement.

A worker wants to blow sawdust off a workbench with the shop air line. What does OSHA's construction standard allow?

• a.Only below 30 p.s.i., with chip guarding and PPE✓
• b.Only below 90 p.s.i., which is the usual shop line pressure
• c.Never, because compressed air may not be used for cleaning purposes
• d.Freely, provided the worker is wearing approved eye protection

29 CFR 1926.302(b)(4) permits compressed air for cleaning only when it is reduced to less than 30 p.s.i., and then only with effective chip guarding and the required personal protective equipment; the 30 p.s.i. limit does not apply to concrete form, mill scale and similar cleaning. 90 p.s.i. is a typical shop line pressure, not a limit. The use is restricted rather than banned outright, and eye protection by itself does not satisfy the rule.

A worker in the basket of an articulating boom lift is wearing a harness. Under OSHA's aerial lift standard, where must the lanyard be attached?

• a.To the nearest structural steel member of the building
• b.To the boom or the basket✓
• c.To the guardrail of the adjacent scaffold
• d.To any anchorage rated at 5,000 pounds

29 CFR 1926.453(b)(2)(v) requires the lanyard to be attached to the boom or basket when working from an aerial lift. Tying off to the building or an adjacent structure is the classic and dangerous error, because a lift that drifts or is struck can pull the worker out of the basket against a fixed anchor. The 5,000-pound figure is the general fall-arrest anchorage rule and does not override the lift-specific attachment point.

Vertical reinforcing steel protrudes from a footing where workers will be working above it. What does OSHA require?

• a.Paint the exposed ends of the bars a high-visibility color
• b.Post a warning sign at the edge of the work area above it
• c.Guard the steel against impalement✓
• d.Bend the bars over

29 CFR 1926.701(b) requires all protruding reinforcing steel onto or into which employees could fall to be guarded to eliminate the hazard of impalement, typically with caps rated for impalement protection, troughs or substantial wood covers. Paint and signs make the hazard more visible but leave it fully intact. Bending the bars neither removes the impalement risk nor is it acceptable to the engineer, since it damages the steel.

On which roofing work does OSHA permit a safety monitoring system to be used alone, with no warning line?

• a.Work on a low-slope roof 50 feet or less in width✓
• b.Any roofing work performed less than 15 feet above a lower level
• c.Roofing work on a steep roof, regardless of the roof's width
• d.Any roofing work where a personal fall arrest system is infeasible

29 CFR 1926.501(b)(10) permits a safety monitoring system by itself only on low-slope roofs 50 feet or less in width; on wider low-slope roofs a monitor may be used only together with a warning line system. On a steep roof, 1926.501(b)(11) allows only guardrails with toeboards, safety nets or personal fall arrest, so a monitor is not an option there at all. Infeasibility opens the door to a written fall protection plan, not to a lone monitor.

Under OSHA's construction standard for accident prevention signs, when may a DANGER sign be used?

• a.Wherever the employer wants to emphasize a site rule
• b.Only to warn against potentially unsafe practices
• c.Only where an immediate hazard exists✓
• d.Only at the entrance to the job site

29 CFR 1926.200(b)(1) restricts danger signs, which carry a red upper panel with a black border and a white lower panel, to places where an immediate hazard exists. Warning against potential hazards or unsafe practices is the caution sign's job, and caution signs are predominantly yellow. Posting DANGER everywhere devalues it, which is precisely why the standard limits it, and it is not an entrance-only sign.

Which of these machines must be equipped with a rollover protective structure under OSHA's construction standards?

• a.A hydraulic truck crane
• b.A self-propelled scissor lift
• c.A truck-mounted concrete boom pump
• d.A rubber-tired front-end loader✓

Subpart W, at 29 CFR 1926.1000(a), covers rubber-tired self-propelled scrapers, rubber-tired front-end loaders, rubber-tired dozers, wheel-type agricultural and industrial tractors, crawler tractors, crawler-type loaders and motor graders, plus compactors and rubber-tired skid-steers manufactured after July 15, 2019. Cranes, aerial and scissor lifts and truck-mounted pumps are governed by other subparts and are not rollover-protection equipment under this rule.

How often does OSHA require a job-site vehicle's brakes, steering, horn, tires, coupling devices, seat belts and safety devices to be checked?

• a.Weekly, by a qualified mechanic, with the result entered in the vehicle log
• b.At the beginning of each shift✓
• c.Monthly, or whenever the vehicle changes operators, whichever comes first
• d.Annually, when the vehicle is presented for its state safety inspection

29 CFR 1926.601(b)(14) requires all vehicles in use to be checked at the beginning of each shift for those parts and accessories, and all defects must be corrected before the vehicle goes into service. The standard sets no weekly, monthly or annual cycle for this check. A state roadworthiness inspection tests different items on a different schedule and does not substitute. The rule also reaches lights, reflectors, wipers, defrosters and fire extinguishers where that equipment is necessary.