For construction workers who may enter or attend a permit-required confined space: recognize confined and permit spaces, check the permit and testing before entry, carry out entrant and attendant duties, and know how rescue works.
Based on OSHA 29 CFR 1926 Subpart AA (1926.1201–1926.1212, confined spaces in construction) · about 7 min read
Need proof of training? The full course (25 min) adds practice questions, a job scenario, the final quiz and a certificate your employer can verify.
It is large enough and shaped so that you can bodily enter it.
It has limited or restricted means for entry and exit.
It is not designed for continuous employee occupancy.
Examples on construction sites include bins, boilers, pits, manholes, tanks, sewers, transformer vaults, HVAC ducts, storm drains, water mains and drilled shafts.
A permit-required confined space has one or more of these
Contains or could contain a hazardous atmosphere
Contains a material that could engulf you
Has an inside shape that could trap or asphyxiate you, such as walls that converge inward or a floor that slopes down and tapers
Contains any other recognized serious safety or health hazard
Before work begins at a site, each employer must have a competent person identify all confined spaces its employees may work in, and identify which ones are permit spaces.
Your employer must tell you where each permit space is and the danger it poses, by posting danger signs or another equally effective means. A sign reading "DANGER—PERMIT-REQUIRED CONFINED SPACE, DO NOT ENTER" or similar language meets the rule.
If your employer has not authorized you to work in a permit space, it must take effective measures to keep you out.
What counts as entry: entry happens as soon as any part of your body breaks the plane of the opening, even if you did not mean to and even if you do no work inside. Leaning your head into a manhole to look is an entry.
Before entry is authorized, the entry employer prepares an entry permit documenting the safety measures. The entry supervisor named on the permit must sign it before entry begins. The completed permit must be available to you at the time of entry, usually posted at the entry portal, so you can confirm the preparations are done.
Things to look for on the permit
The permit must identify these items, among others:
The space to be entered, and the date and authorized duration
The hazards of the space
The acceptable entry conditions
The test results, with the testers' names or initials and when the tests were done
The rescue and emergency services and how to summon them
The communication procedures between entrants and attendants
Good practice: if the permit is not signed, not posted, or the test results are missing, do not go in. Ask the entry supervisor.
An authorized entrant is an employee authorized by the entry supervisor to enter a permit space. The entry employer must ensure that you:
Know the hazards you may face, including how exposure happens, its signs or symptoms, and its consequences
Use the equipment properly that the entry employer must provide at no cost: testing and monitoring, ventilating, communications, personal protective and lighting equipment; barriers and shields; equipment such as ladders for getting in and out; rescue and emergency equipment (except what rescue services provide); and any other equipment needed for safe entry, exit and rescue
Communicate with the attendant so they can check on you and tell you to get out
Alert the attendant whenever
You notice any warning sign or symptom of exposure to a dangerous situation, or
You detect a prohibited condition
Get out as quickly as possible whenever
The attendant or entry supervisor orders you to evacuate
There is any warning sign or symptom of exposure to a dangerous situation
The attendant is stationed outside the permit space and watches over the entrants. The entry employer must ensure that you:
Know the hazards, and are aware of possible behavioral effects of exposure in entrants (a good practice is to watch for changes such as confusion or slurred speech)
Continuously keep an accurate count of who is inside
Stay outside the space during entry operations until another attendant relieves you
Communicate with entrants to check on them and alert them to evacuate
Summon rescue as soon as you determine entrants may need help to escape
Do no other duties that might interfere with your primary job of assessing and protecting the entrants
Order the entrants out immediately if
There is a prohibited condition
An entrant shows behavioral effects of hazard exposure
Something outside the space could endanger them
You cannot effectively and safely do all your duties
If unauthorized people approach
Warn them to stay away. If they have entered, tell them to exit immediately, and inform the entrants and the entry supervisor.
Retrieval lines, and why you do not go in after them
Non-entry rescue comes first
Non-entry rescue (pulling someone out without going in) is required unless the retrieval equipment would increase the overall risk or would not help. When it is used, retrieval systems are used whenever an entrant goes in:
Each entrant wears a chest or full body harness with the retrieval line attached at the center of the back near shoulder level, above the head, or at another point the employer shows gives a small enough profile for removal. Wristlets or anklets may be used instead only if the employer can show that a harness is infeasible or creates a greater hazard and that wristlets or anklets are the safest and most effective alternative.
For vertical permit spaces more than 5 feet deep, a mechanical device must be available to retrieve people.
The attendant performs non-entry rescues as the employer's rescue procedure specifies.
Do not go in after them
The employer's program must include procedures for preventing unauthorized personnel from attempting a rescue. If you are not authorized to perform entry rescues, your training must cover the dangers of attempting them. The rule lets a relieved attendant enter to attempt a rescue when the program allows attendant entry for rescue and the attendant has been trained and equipped for rescue.
Remember: the hazard that dropped the first person can drop you just as fast. Summon rescue, use the retrieval line, and stay out.
Fact-checked against the regulation text on October 09, 2026. This certificate records completion of awareness training based on OSHA 29 CFR 1926.1201–1926.1209 and 1926.1211. It is not an OSHA card or license, and it does not by itself meet the training requirements of 29 CFR 1926.1207. Your employer must still provide training, at no cost to you and in a language and vocabulary you understand, that gives you the understanding, knowledge and skills to safely perform the duties assigned to you under the standard and establishes your proficiency in those duties, and must keep records of that training.
This guide explains the rule in plain words. Always read the regulation itself and your employer's site-specific procedures.