How many exit routes does OSHA require?

At least two exit routes in most workplaces, located as far apart as practical so one blockage does not cut off escape. More are required if the building size, occupancy, or arrangement means two cannot allow safe evacuation. A single exit route is allowed only when everyone can evacuate safely through it.

What are the three parts of an exit route?

The exit access, which is the path leading to the exit; the exit, which is the protected passage such as a rated door or enclosed stairwell; and the exit discharge, which leads directly outside to a street, open space, or other safe area. OSHA regulates all three as one continuous route.

How wide does an exit route have to be?

An exit access must be at least 28 inches wide at all points, and wider where it serves a larger occupant load. The ceiling must be at least 7 feet 6 inches high, with no projection lower than 6 feet 8 inches. Nothing may narrow the route below these minimums.

Can exit doors be locked during business hours?

Exit route doors must be unlocked from the inside. Employees must be able to open an exit door from the inside at all times without keys, tools, or special knowledge. Chains, deadbolts, and slide bolts added for security are a common and serious violation because they trap people during an evacuation.

What are the OSHA requirements for exit signs?

Each exit must be marked by a sign reading Exit, with letters at least 6 inches high and principal strokes at least three-quarters of an inch wide, illuminated to at least 5 foot-candles. Directional signs are required where the way is not obvious, and doors that could be mistaken for exits must be marked Not an Exit or with their use.

What is the difference between 1910.36 and 1910.37?

Section 1910.36 covers design and construction: how many exit routes, how wide, how they are built and separated, and unlocked doors. Section 1910.37 covers maintenance and operation: keeping routes unobstructed, lit, and marked, and keeping safeguards like alarms and exit lighting in working order.

What are the most common exit route violations?

Blocked routes (pallets, carts, or material narrowing or closing an aisle), locked or chained exit doors, and missing, dark, or misdirected exit signs. Most are maintenance failures rather than design flaws, which is why frequent walkdowns catch them where an annual review does not.

OSHA Exit Route Requirements

Two routes, clear and unlocked, marked and lit, all the way from the back of the floor to a place of safety.

An OSHA exit route is a continuous, unobstructed path of travel from any point in a workplace to a place of safety, made up of the exit access, the exit itself, and the exit discharge. Under 29 CFR 1910.36 and 1910.37, most workplaces need at least two.

Exit routes are the rules people forget until a fire marshal walks the aisle or a near-miss makes the point for them. They are also among the most cited egress problems, because the failures are mundane: a pallet parked in the aisle, a back door chained for security, a burned-out exit sign nobody replaced. This post covers what an exit route is, how many you need and how wide, the design rules in 1910.36, the maintenance rules in 1910.37, and the violations that draw citations. It is educational, not legal advice.

What is an exit route under OSHA?

An exit route is a continuous and unobstructed path of exit travel from any point within a workplace to a place of safety, and it has three parts. The exit access is the portion that leads to an exit, such as the aisles and corridors people move through. The exit is the part that is generally separated from other areas to provide a protected way of travel, like a rated door or an enclosed stairwell. The exit discharge is the part that leads directly outside to a street, open space, or other safe area. OSHA regulates the whole chain, so a clear aisle that ends at a locked door is not a compliant exit route.

The standard splits into two halves. Section 1910.36 covers design and construction (how many routes, how wide, how they are built and separated). Section 1910.37 covers maintenance and operation (keeping routes unblocked, unlocked, lit, and marked). Design gets you a compliant building; maintenance keeps it compliant on a Tuesday afternoon when the shipping team is staging outbound pallets.

An exit route is one continuous path in three parts. The rules protect the whole chain, not just the door with the sign over it.

How many exit routes do you need, and how wide?

At least two, in most cases. A workplace must have at least two exit routes to permit prompt evacuation, and they must be located as far apart as practical so that if one is blocked by fire or smoke, the other is still usable. More than two are required if the number of employees, the size of the building, or its arrangement means two will not allow everyone to escape safely. A single exit route is permitted only when the number of employees, the size of the building, and its arrangement allow all occupants to evacuate safely through one.

Width and height are fixed minimums. An exit access must be at least 28 inches wide at all points, and where the route serves a larger occupant load it must be wider to accommodate it. The ceiling must be at least 7 feet 6 inches high, and any projection down from the ceiling cannot reach lower than 6 feet 8 inches from the floor. Nothing may narrow the route below these minimums, which is exactly why a stack of material creeping into an aisle is a violation even if a person can still squeeze past.

Capacity is the piece plants overlook. The width of an exit route has to be sufficient for the maximum permitted occupant load of each floor it serves, so a route sized for a lightly staffed area can become undersized when you add a shift, a mezzanine, or a densely populated line. Occupant load is not a fixed feature of the building; it moves with how you use the space, and OSHA and local fire code both tie egress capacity to it. When you change staffing or layout, re-check that your existing routes still carry the people who now depend on them, because adding people without adding egress quietly erodes compliance.

The design numbers from 1910.36. Occupant load can push widths and route counts higher, never lower.

What do the design and construction rules require?

Section 1910.36 sets how exit routes are built. Exits must be separated from other parts of the workplace by construction with a fire-resistance rating sufficient for the number of stories they connect, and openings into an exit must be limited and protected. Exit routes must lead outside or to a discharge that opens onto a safe area, and the discharge must be large enough for the expected occupant load. Outdoor exit routes are allowed but must meet the same accessibility and guarding rules, must be arranged so employees are not exposed to hazards, and must have a stable, level-as-practical walking surface.

Two design rules matter most on a plant floor. First, exit route doors must be unlocked from the inside: employees must be able to open an exit door from the inside at all times without keys, tools, or special knowledge, and the door must be free of any device or alarm that could restrict emergency use if it fails. Second, a door, passage, or stairway that is neither an exit nor a way to an exit, but could be mistaken for one, must be marked "Not an Exit" or with a sign identifying its actual use (such as "Storeroom"), so nobody runs toward a dead end in smoke.

What maintenance and operational rules apply?

Section 1910.37 is where compliance is won or lost day to day. Exit routes must be kept free and unobstructed; nothing may block, even partially, an exit route, and no materials or equipment may be placed in it. Safeguards designed to protect the route (like fire alarms, sprinklers, and exit lighting) must be maintained in working order. The route must be adequately lit so an employee with normal vision can see along it. And exits must be marked: each exit must be clearly visible and marked by a sign reading "Exit," with directional signs where the way to the exit is not immediately apparent.

Exit signs have their own specifications. The word "Exit" must be in plainly legible letters at least 6 inches high, with the principal strokes at least three-quarters of an inch wide, and each sign must be illuminated to a surface value of at least 5 foot-candles by a reliable light source. These are small numbers that get cited when a sign is present but dim, undersized, or pointing the wrong way. Build the exit-route check into your workplace safety audit so signs and lighting are verified on a schedule, not discovered failed during an evacuation.

Nearly every exit-route citation is one of these four: blocked, locked, unmarked, or discharging nowhere safe.

How do you keep exit routes compliant?

Turn the two standards into a walking routine and repeat it.

Map every exit route from the farthest work points, confirming at least two are available and are located far enough apart that one blockage does not trap anyone.
Walk each route for obstructions, clearing pallets, carts, cords, and staged material so the full 28-inch minimum width is open end to end.
Test every exit door from the inside, confirming it opens without keys, tools, or special knowledge, and removing chains, deadbolts, or slide bolts added for security.
Check every sign, verifying "Exit" signs are lit, legible, and correctly placed, directional signs point the right way, and non-exits are marked so nobody is misled.
Verify the lighting and safeguards, confirming the route stays adequately lit, including on emergency power where required, and that alarms and other safeguards work.
Trace the discharge to safety, making sure each route ends at a street, open space, or refuge that is itself unlocked and clear, not a fenced yard or a blocked gate.
Log and fix findings on the spot, feeding anything you cannot clear immediately into your near-miss reporting so it is tracked to closure.

Do this often enough that a blocked aisle is caught in hours, not at the next inspection. Egress hazards are dynamic: a route that was clear this morning gets blocked by the afternoon's inbound shipment, which is why a one-time design review never keeps a plant compliant.

What do the rules and numbers say?

The exit-route requirements are set by regulation, and these are the primary anchors:

Design and construction (route count, width, separation, unlocked doors, marking of non-exits) are in 29 CFR 1910.36.
Maintenance and operation (keeping routes unobstructed, lit, marked, and safeguards working) are in 29 CFR 1910.37.
The exit access must be at least 28 inches wide at all points, and exit signs lit to at least 5 foot-candles with 6-inch letters.

The pattern in exit-route citations is boring and consistent: routes that were designed right and then blocked, locked, or left dark. That is a maintenance problem, and maintenance problems are visibility problems.

Where exit-route compliance falls apart

An exit route passes its design review once and then drifts out of compliance every time the floor gets busy. The chain forms in the aisle at 3 p.m., the security team bolts a back door after a theft, an exit sign burns out on second shift. None of it is on anyone's screen until an inspector or a fire marshal finds it. Harmony is an AI-native layer that connects machines, software, and paperwork into one operational layer, with no rip-and-replace. Route walkdowns, blocked-aisle reports, sign and lighting checks, and their fixes become structured data captured on a tablet where the problem is, so a chained exit or a dead sign is a tracked item that afternoon rather than a citation next quarter.

Harmony is not an egress-compliance product and it does not replace your fire code obligations or your inspections. It keeps the walkdown from being a clipboard nobody reviews, so the exit-route check ties into the same operational record as your machine guarding checks, your job safety analysis and the file you build for OSHA inspection preparation. Standardizing the signs themselves is its own task, covered in OSHA safety signs and color codes. See what a single operational layer looks like on a real plant floor in the CLS case study.