New Cal/OSHA Standard for Confined Spaces in Construction Takes Effect on January 1, 2026

Quick Hits

• Revised California safety regulations related to confined spaces in construction will take effect on January 1, 2026.
• California’s revised regulations on construction safety orders include updated definitions for “entry employer,” “hazardous atmosphere,” “lockout,” “minimum explosive concentration,” and “tagout.”

The revised regulations require employers to identify confined spaces and evaluate permit-required spaces, utilizing a competent person for the initial survey of the work area and the identification of the permit-required confined spaces at the time work begins. Employers are also required to communicate when a new confined space is discovered or created.

As with the general industry standard, “confined space” means a space that (1) is large enough and so configured that an employee can bodily enter it, (2) has limited or restricted means for entry and exit, and (3) is not designed for continuous employee occupancy.

“Permit-required confined space” (“permit space”) means a confined space that has one or more of the following characteristics: (1) it “[c]ontains or has a potential to contain a hazardous atmosphere”; (2) it “[c]ontains a material that has the potential for engulfing an entrant”; (3) it “[h]as an internal configuration such that an entrant could be trapped or asphyxiated by inwardly converging walls or by a floor which slopes downward and tapers to a smaller cross-section”; or (4) it “[c]ontains any other recognized serious safety or health hazard.”

“Entry employer” is broadly defined and includes “any employer whose employees enter or will enter a permit space.” Entry employers must have a written permit space program implemented at the construction site.

Maintaining documentation for these requirements is critical and may require new methods of recordkeeping at construction job sites.

Next Steps

California construction employers may want to take note of the regulations’ January 1, 2026, effective date and consider making adjustments and updates to their confined-space programs and construction site inspections.

Ogletree Deakins’ Workplace Safety and Health Practice Group will continue to monitor developments and will provide updates on the California, Construction, and Workplace Safety and Health blogs as additional information becomes available.

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