The biggest changes in the latest edition of the B77.1 standard on lift operations are in resort signage, fuel handling, and updating electrical requirements, says Sid Roslund, director of technical services for NSAA. But the changes don’t add lots of new rules, he says. The main goal is to update and make the standard easier to implement.
The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) B77.1 standard consists of six major sections: reversables (tramways), detachable-grip systems, fixed-grip systems, overhead cable surface lifts, tows, and conveyors. Each section is further divided. For example, fixed-grip chairlifts includes three divisions: design, electrical design, and operations (including rules for operators, inspections, and maintenance logs).
To make things more concise for field personnel, B77.1 will now feature annexes that target specific areas of operation. This is typical of a trend in standards generally. “The standards world is going to the adoption of a lot of annexes,” Roslund says. “If you work in lift maintenance, certain standards apply to you. If you’re in operations, others apply.” Each area will be covered by an annex that includes all relevant requirements.
The work is done by the ANSI ASC B77.1 committee’s 55 voting members, plus another 25 to 30 active experts. “Subcommittees work on different topics,” Roslund says. “Then, we put all that into one document and send it to everyone on the committee, as well as the experts and authorities with jurisdiction, to look at it as sort of a first shot.” The idea is to keep all those people in the loop so that when it’s time for the ballot process, all questions have been answered.
Once the standard is published, the tramway board for a given state will look at it, review it, and eventually adopt it as the rules for that state, along with any other items specific to that state.
Roslund says that while there are several changes in the use of signs in and around lifts, few areas will be impacted. “Most of the signs everybody has are valid,” he says. “Everything was working quite well, and we just wanted it to look better across the country—have it be universal. So, when people come from a little area to a big ski area, the signage looks the same, within reason.”
One of the biggest additions to the proposed standard is a spreadsheet that will list all the signs required against ropeway types and operating possibilities. The items in that spreadsheet should look pretty familiar to area operators; the B77.1 committee has been discussing the signage standards for several years, and results of those discussions have been communicated to NSAA members.
On the topic of fuel handling, B77.1 used to refer readers to still other standards. Now, an annex in B77.1 includes all the standards related to fuels. Roslund says the major points of the fuel-handling annex are storage and plumbing—namely how much volume you can store, where it can be stored, and what type of safety measures must be in place so there are no spills. If a ski area has fuel storage, there are requirements on fire suppression (like extinguishers) and how suppressants are hung and marked.
The annex makes it easier for staff who handle fuel to understand the rules and regulations. “They used to be in three or four books,” Roslund says. “For one type of engine, you used to have to go to one book. Or you had to go to another one for the flammable liquid code, which would be another standard. This new standard tries to bring everything into one place.”
The rewriting of electrical requirements is essentially an effort to catch up with technological advances. “We are moving away from relay logic to a solid state circuitry, and that is major,” Roslund says. “Many controls are being computerized.” Roslund is quick to point out that rewriting the electrical requirements won’t require learning new procedures, and that the standard is simply catching up with technology. “Things have been changing really fast,” he says.
The end result of the current revision of B77.1 should be greater utility, not greatly changed operations. In that sense, the new B77.1 is a step forward.
