Excavation Near Underground Services SWMS

Suits excavation, civil, plumbing, drainage, landscaping, fencing and building contractors who dig where underground services may lie. It follows the work from getting service plans and locating and marking services, through potholing to prove their position, excavating, supporting trenches and protecting exposed services, to backfilling and responding to a strike. Operating the excavator itself is covered by the separate Excavator SWMS.

Learn More: What Is A Safe Work Method Statement?
Have you ever been asked to provide a SWMS on a project in Queensland? Read our guide to what a Safe Work Method Statement is and when you need one.

What Is Covered In Our Excavation Near Underground Services SWMS?

The job steps run in the order the work is done, from pre-start checks to finishing up. The hazards and controls include:

• Striking live underground electric cables
• Damaging gas, water, sewer and telecommunications services
• Missing or out-of-date service plans
• Locators that miss or misread a service
• Private and undocumented services
• Machine digging too close to a proved service
• Trench wall collapse beside old service trenches
• Contaminated atmosphere from gas, fuel or sewer leaks
• Asbestos cement pipes and fittings in the ground
• Exposed services sagging or being damaged
• Backfill and shoring removal near services
• Electric shock, gas release and flooding after a strike

High Risk Construction Work

These high risk construction work items (WHS Regulation 2011 (Qld) s 291) are already ticked because they are part of this work. Tick any others that apply to your job:

• Is carried out on or near pressurised gas distribution mains or piping
• Is carried out on or near energised electrical installations or services

Licences, Training and Competency

• General construction induction training card (white card) for construction work
• Site induction that covers where underground services are known or suspected and the rules for digging near them
• Trained operator of the cable and pipe locator or ground penetrating radar, competent in using it and reading the results
• Operators of excavators, vacuum excavators and other digging plant competent on the machine and attachments (no high risk work licence class applies to operating an excavator)
• Spotter briefed on hand signals, the digging limits, the proved service positions and the emergency plan
• Competent person, such as an engineer or geotechnical engineer, to design or approve trench support or advise on ground conditions
• High risk work licence in the dogging class, or a higher rigging class (WHS Regulation Schedule 3), for anyone who slings trench shields or other loads or directs a plant operator in the movement of a load when the load is out of the operator’s view (Schedule 19, dogging work); lifting with the excavator is in the separate Excavator SWMS
• Asbestos awareness so workers recognise asbestos cement pipes and other suspect material, stop and report it; training under WHS Regulation s 445 is for workers the business reasonably believes may be involved in asbestos removal work or asbestos-related work (separate asbestos SWMS)
• Trained traffic controllers where traffic control is needed on or beside a road

Legislation and Codes of Practice Referenced

• Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (Qld)
• Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (Qld)
• Excavation Work Code of Practice 2021
• Electrical Safety Act 2002 (Qld)
• Electrical Safety Regulation 2026 (Qld): ss 14 and 15 (underground electric lines) and s 292 (serious electrical incidents and dangerous electrical events)
• Electrical Safety Code of Practice 2020 – Working near overhead and underground electric lines
• Electrical Safety Code of Practice 2021 – Managing electrical risks in the workplace
• Managing Risks of Plant in the Workplace Code of Practice 2021
• Managing the Risk of Falls at Workplaces Code of Practice 2021
• Confined Spaces Code of Practice 2021
• How to Manage and Control Asbestos in the Workplace Code of Practice 2021
• How to Safely Remove Asbestos Code of Practice 2021
• Traffic Management for Construction or Maintenance Work Code of Practice 2008
• Hazardous Manual Tasks Code of Practice 2021
• How to Manage Work Health and Safety Risks Code of Practice 2021
• First Aid in the Workplace Code of Practice 2021

What You Get

• An editable Microsoft Word document (17 pages), laid out on A4 landscape pages
• Business, client, job and document details typed once and filled in on every page, plus a space for your logo
• The high risk construction work checklist, worded as WHS Regulation s 291, and the construction project question (s 292)
• A worker and health and safety representative consultation record
• Qualifications, plant, PPE, hazardous chemicals, safety equipment, permits, references and emergency arrangements filled in for this work
• A 5 x 5 risk matrix, and job steps with initial and residual risk scores and the people responsible
• Implementing, monitoring and review requirements, an additional controls log, revision history and a worker sign-on sheet

Review and adjust it for your site, your plant and the way your crew does the job, and talk it through with your workers before work starts. If you have any trouble downloading this SWMS, you can contact us at any time. Please make sure you read our Disclaimer before downloading this SWMS.