Hint: Buried treasure
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If you stare at this photo long enough, you’ll eventually see a junction box hiding behind all of the pipes and cables. While the cover screws are accessible, removing the cover plate and gaining access to the wiring inside of the box will certainly prove to be much more challenging. The cables and raceways installed below this box severely obstruct access to the wiring connections inside of it. This is a violation of Sec. 314.29 of the 2017 NEC. Wiring inside of boxes, conduit bodies, and handhole enclosures is required to be accessible without needing to remove any parts of the building or structure. Could we work on the wires and splices inside this box with all of these obstructions in the way? It may be nearly impossible.
It may be hard to tell from the photo, but this box is not properly supported either. It is being held up by EMT connected to the box. Using EMT for the support of junction boxes or outlet boxes is a violation of Sec. 358.12(2). Supporting a conduit body with EMT is permitted by this section of the Code. Section 314.23(E) similarly prohibits EMT from supporting boxes, but the exception in that section allows EMT to support conduit bodies. RMC or IMC threaded into a box is a permitted means of supporting a box with a raceway.
