Applicability: All new passenger and cargo ships constructed (keel laid) on or after 1 January, 2016
The IMO has amended SOLAS Regulation II-2/13.4* to improve means of escape in the machinery spaces on cargo ships and bring them into line with existing arrangements for passenger ships. The amendments will require two means of escape from a machinery control room for new passenger and cargo ships constructed (keel laid) on or after 1 January, 2016.
The following additional requirements have also been included for new passenger and cargo ships:
- Two means of escape will be required from main workshops within the machinery space, with at least one of these escape routes providing a continuous fire shelter to a safe position outside the machinery space.
- All inclined ladders and stairways fitted with open treads in machinery spaces being part of or providing access to escape routes, but not located within a protected enclosure, will have to be fitted with steel shields attached to their undersides.
The meaning of the terms ‘main workshop’, ‘machinery control room’, ‘continuous fire shelter’ and ‘safe position’ is clarified in IMO Circular MSC.1/Circ.1511.
* The amendments to SOLAS Regulation II-2/13.4 are contained in IMO Resolution MSC.365(93)
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