Fall protection challenges:

• Towers serve a variety of purposes, including carrying electrical transmission lines and supporting communications networks. The number of towers erected is increasing by the thousands each year and are often in remote wilderness areas. These towers must be serviced and accessed. Whether workers are climbing to do maintenance work or erecting the tower itself, safety assurance along with comfort and mobility must be taken into consideration. Workers up on towers for lengthy periods of time can experience fatigue and need to be able to rely on top of the line fall protection.

• Workers often find themselves climbing and moving from one area of the tower to another which may present some dangerous scenarios. Along with the obvious danger of working at height, towers expose rescuers to hazards they may not normally encounter on the ground. The hazards on an electrical transmission line tower involve not just the transmission lines themselves, but also the minimum air distances around those lines, and equipment must be kept clear of voltage lines.

• Additionally hazardous, tower rescues can include workers involved with building or maintaining a tower or worker who may have been injured or suffered a sudden illness. Rescuers must be sufficiently mobile to deal with all types of emergency situations.