S 5.1 Removal or deactivation of unneeded lines

Initiation responsibility: Building Services Manager

Implementation responsibility: Building Services, Administrator

Unneeded lines include all lines not required any more for the function of the building due to changes in usage or modernisation measures. As a matter of principle, these lines should be completely removed to limit the fire loads in the building to the absolute minimum and to fill the trays and channels only to the extent necessary. When removing lines, it must be ensured that the fire walls are properly resealed after the cables have been removed.

Only the responsible organisational unit is allowed to decide, after careful consideration, which lines are not needed any more. The decision made is to be documented.

If changes are made to the wiring infrastructure parallel to daily operations, sufficient organisational support must be provided for the safeguards so that disruptions to daily operations are reduced to a minimum. For this, it may be necessary to schedule the work at night or on weekends. If there is not enough space in the existing trays for both the old and the new cables, new trays must be installed for the new cables in order to keep the time required to switch from the old infrastructure still in operation to the new infrastructure as short as possible.

Any trays and cables suitable for continued use with the existing technology as reserve capacity are to be kept in operating condition.

All terminal blocks and patch fields in distributors not needed any more are to be removed and then deleted from the documentation.

Cables that are not needed any more should also be removed wherever possible. If this is not possible because the cable is concealed under plaster, for example, the cable must be deactivated by short-circuiting and grounding it.

All changes must be documented in a revisable manner in the operating documentation.

It is recommended to have the changes tested by qualified experts at regular intervals and after any work is performed on the lines. These tests must be documented.

Review questions:

• Have lines no longer needed been removed completely in order to avoid fire loads?
• Are the fire walls resealed properly every time cables have been removed?
• Is the decision as to the removal of cables only made after the review by the competent organisational unit?
• Have all changes to the wiring been documented in an audit-proof manner in the operating documents?