Approval of Ship Structural Access Manuals (SSAM) issued by Liberia

Liberia Maritime Authority has issued the Marine Notice SAF-010, Rev. 01/23 for all shipowners, operators, masters, and officers of merchant ships, and authorized classification societies.

This notice was published on January 6th, 2023, and it offers guidance in the
development and approval of Ship Structural Access Manuals (SSAM) in order to meet the requirements of the amended regulation II-1/3-6 of SOLAS.

The SOLAS regulation requires that each space in the cargo area and forward spaces in oil tankers of 500 GT and over and bulk carriers of 20,000 GT and over, constructed on or after 1 January 2005, need to administer means of access to enable overall and close-up inspections and thickness measurement of the ship’s structures.

SOLAS also requires that the ship's means of access are described in SSAM and the updated copy of SSAM should always be kept on board.

The SSAM needs to be approved by the Administration.

Two appendices are also attached to this notice: Appendix I - Model Format of Ship Structural Access Manual and Appendix II - Ship Structural Access Manual (SSAM) Basic Requirements from SOLAS Chapter II-1, Reg 3-6 Ship Structural Access Manual (SSAM) Plan Questionnaire.

For more information, please see the document below (available only to subscribers):

RELEVANT DOCUMENTS:

Approval of Ship Structural Access Manuals (SSAM)