Subsection 3: Traffic.

In shafts deeper than twenty-five metres, the winches used to transport workers are powered mechanically.

As long as there are workers in an underground gallery or at the bottom of a shaft, the presence of a worker is required at all times to operate the winch. When the depth of a shaft exceeds six metres, a hand-operated winch must be operated by at least two workers.

Shafts in which ladders are used for descent, rest landings of sufficient size to accommodate at least two workers are set up no more than six metres apart. The flights may be vertical. Fixed handholds are placed at each landing to allow easy access.

When a gallery is cut through ground where there is a risk of sudden and significant water ingress, the gallery must have exits enabling workers to be evacuated quickly. Failing this, appropriate measures, such as the installation of a sufficient number of raised niches, must be implemented. When a shaft is sunk in ground similar to that mentioned in the first paragraph, escape ladders are installed from the bottom of…

In underground galleries where there are railway tracks, in the absence of a free space of 55 centimetres measured between the most protruding part of the rolling stock and the most protruding parts of the gallery walls, a safety recess of sufficient size to simultaneously shelter two workers and at least 60 centimetres deep shall be provided as work progresses and at intervals of not more than 10 metres. If…