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High-visibility safety apparel meeting ISEA standards will be required for all workers in a highway right-of-way or workzone, under new rules published by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) on December 16.

12/16/2009

The 2009 revision to the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD) requires that workers, including emergency responders, wear high-visibility apparel whenever they are exposed to moving traffic, work vehicles or construction equipment.  The apparel must meet Performance Class 2 or 3 requirements of ANSI/ISEA 107-2004, the American National Standard for High Visibility Safety Apparel and Headwear.   

This requirement also applies to firefighters, emergency responders and law enforcement personnel working within the right-of-way. As an option, emergency responders and law enforcement personnel may wear garments that meet the standard for high-visibility public safety vests ANSI/ISEA 207-2006. There is an exception for firefighters who may be directly exposed to fire, flame, heat or hazardous materials, and are wearing retroreflective turnout gear that meets NFPA or other standards. 

A separate section of the MUTCD, which covers specific requirements for flaggers, also requires the use of ANSI/ISEA 107-compliant apparel, and specifies that background material must be fluorescent orange-red, fluorescent yellow-green “or a combination of the two as specified in the ANSI standard.”   This section also permits the use of ANSI/ISEA 207-compliant public-safety vests for law enforcement personnel directing traffic in a workzone.  A section on adult school crossing guards requires ANSI/ISEA 107 Class 2 apparel, but refers back to the flaggers section.

Previously, the 2003 edition of the MUTCD required high-visibilty apparel only for flaggers, and recommended its use for other workers. Use of these garments by workers in federal-aid highway workzones was mandated by a 2006 FHWA regulation, 23 CFR part 634, which took effect in November 2008.  That regulation is superseded by the revised MUTCD, and coverage is extended to all workzones, not just those on federal-aid highways.

The revised MUTCD takes effect January 15, 2010.  States must adopt it as their state stanadrd withing two years. Workers on non-federal highways will have to be in compliance with the high-visibility safety apparel requirements by December 31, 2011.