Hanging Conveyor Egress

[dmech2022]

Greetings all. I've used this forum as a lurker for years to aid in my various permitting efforts, I'm happy to say I've finally registered.
The situation at hand is this: my employer has installed a gondola style hanging conveyor for the transportation of empty boxes to a work area. This conveyor runs over an egress route. The gondola's are at 96" above grade, however with a box hanging on the gondola, the box itself falls below the minimum 6'8" clearance for egress. My company has installed similar equipment all over the world and we've never had a problem, this particular customer has asked us to provide a justification for this installation.
From our prospective, the 6'8" minimum applies to the nearest fixed obstruction. The cartons, as they are temporary and removable do not qualify. I'm having trouble finding anything specific in the code to support this conclusion - anybody got any ideas?

 

[RLGA]

Looking at it from an accessibility point of view, is the egress route considered a common use circulation path as defined per the IBC and/or the 2010 ADA Standards? If so, then Section 307.2 in ANSI A117.1 and the 2010 ADA Standards both limit "objects with leading edges" to 80 inches (6'-8") above the finished floor if they protrude more than 4 inches into the pathway. Neither section distinguishes between fixed, temporary, or removable objects. The advisory paragraph for the ADA Standards mentions casement windows "when open," so their interpretation would likely be that the height restriction applies to temporary objects.

Thus, I would have to say that the conveyor with boxes of the size indicated violates the accessibility provisions of the IBC and the ADA.