[Ed Morrissett]

 

My home course -- The Governors Club in Chapel Hill, NC done by Jack Nicklaus -- is in my unbiased view an excellent one with a lot of variety.  It is built over somewhat hilly terrain and thus lies my question.

We have a number of bridges over small streams, ravines and lakes.  At present we have a roughly one foot curb along the edges of the bridges to prevent carts, etc. from toppling over but we do not have any railings.  Some have recently said we need 42" railings in order to be safe from an insurance liability and OSHA standpoint.  Obviously, no matter how well designed such railings might be they would be less attractive than no railings.  I have played a lot of courses without such railings so they must not be required everywhere.

I would appreciate any light any of you experts could shed on this.

[TEPaul]

Ed:

I'm afraid I don't know anything about bridge railings but I was just wondering if you had to do any schmoozing with Ran to make the final cut of the select 1500 allowed to remain registered on this website or if the fact that you're his Dad carried any water at all?  

[Ed Morrissett]

Ran who?

[RJ_Daley]

Ed, I don't know the answer specifically.  But I was thinking that having railings might restrict mowers and equipment from crossing that have part of their cutting or working units that hang out away from the wheel base.  JUst speculation on my part, however...

PS:  I will be sending you a question on the IM feature that Ran has provided...

[Steve_ Shaffer]

Ed

My former club(opened in 1990) had many bridges without railings but with a similar edge guard as you described. I would suggest that your insurance carrier conduct an inspection so that they could make any suggestions if they feel that a liability issue exists.

Steve

[Jfaspen]

Having members sign a waiver of liability and assuming responsibility for their guests along with indemnifying the club might be a solution without building railings.  

Sooner or later someone is gonna take a plunge though.

[Steve Lang]

 

We have same type bridges at two of our courses and every time we traverse one of those bridges, ms. sheila says "these are in violation of osha regs for workers" not players!

I believe citation is under OSHA's Part 1910, Subpart D-Walking-Working Surfaces regs, per the General Industry standard which applies to this workplace application. Specifically, paragraph 1910.23(c)(1)

Protection of open-sided floors, platforms, and runways."

1910.23(c)(1)
Every open-sided floor or platform 4 feet or more above adjacent floor or ground level shall be guarded by a standard railing (or the equivalent as specified in paragraph (e)(3) of this section) on all open sides except where there is entrance to a ramp, stairway, or fixed ladder. The railing shall be provided with a toeboard wherever, beneath the open sides,

1910.23(c)(1)(i)
Persons can pass,

1910.23(c)(1)(ii)
There is moving machinery, or

1910.23(c)(1)(iii)
There is equipment with which falling materials could create a hazard.

I noticed at Carter Plantation east of Red Stick, LA that they had the toe-board type bumpers, but then built up further outside them were good solid looking railings.. I suspect its just $ left for future improvements at a course.. ahem after the first lawsuit??
 

[Tommy_Naccarato]

Ed, you stole my thunder. I was just getting ready to ask who the Hell was Ed Morrissett?!?!?!

[TEPaul]

Ed:

I still don't know a thing about bridge railing requirements but I'll tell you something funny about lack of bridge railings or even curbs. One time Kye Goalby and I were out looking at a really fantastic piece of property for a golf course in rural Virginia. It was way out under the Blue Ridge Mts in Syria Virginia, a little town I call "a 30 second town". Anyway the little bridge onto the beautiful property (with a beautiful house on it) had no railing or even the slightest curb. I about hung my car out on that bridge but Kye and I agreed if they were that lax out there and we actually did do a course out there there'd be no problem at all getting anything done we wanted to get done----if you know what I mean!  

I sort of envisioned the permitting might be something like going down to the town and saying, "Do you guys mind if we build a golf course?" and them saying somethng like, "If you boys want to go build yourselves a golf course that'd be OK with us, but if you boys fool with our coon huntin' we gonna shoot your asses right hea and now!"

[Forrest Richardson]

I avoid designing any structures — cart paths and bridges especially. However, here are two insights:

— A railing can promote injury as cart riders (especially a passenger) has no control over the cart and can be hit if an arm or foot is even slightly outside the confines of the cart

— A ball can strike a railing and rebound into a golfer or fellow golfer

- - -

We had a course where a drainage pipe was more than 36-in. below the fairway grade and an engineer said it was required to add a 42-in. railing. I pointed out that the railing would be in front of a tee and could cause more trouble than if not installed. Besides, I pointed out, there were bunkers deeper than 36-in. and no one required them to have railings!

[LenBum]

Let me tell a story about the bridges you are talking about. In the winter I work at Medalist Golf Club in Hobe Sound, Fl. The first tee is about 200 yards from the clubhouse. You have to cross one of these bridges with the 12" curb. A few years back I had run out to the first fairway to forecaddie. I looked back and saw all 4 of my players bolting back across the bridge toward the clubhouse. A maintenance guy on one of those sand pros lost his concentration for a split second and went up and over the side into the water. The sand pro trapped him under the water. I ran back and when I got there 2 members and a member of the staff were violently trying to get the machine off him. They finally did and pass the guy up to us on the bridge. He was coughing and choking but still alive. We estimated he was under the water for 90 seconds. He ended up in the hospital for weeks with all kinds of infections from swallowing that stagnant Everglades water.

[Patrick_Mucci]

LenBum,

That's an unfortunate incident.
Hopefully he survived without any health problems other then bad memories.  A grounds crewman drowned at another club in south florida a few years ago when his riding equipment went into a deep pond/lake.

Unfortunately we live in a world where accidents happen, but I don't think that liability should be universally passed back to the designer or builder of the bridge.

If someone falls down the steps in their house is it the builder or designers fault ?

Sometimes the person who falls is at fault, but you'd never know it by looking at court dockets.

[Ed Morrissett]

Thanks for all the help guys.  I am surprised that there isn't a more or less standardized way to deal with this situation that I would guess occurs on virtually every golf course.

I'm going to pass the responses on to the appropriate people at my club.

[Tags:]

Tags:

[Tags:]

Tags:

Call to undefined function theme_linktree()