Asphalt Paving SWMS

Suits road, civil and paving contractors laying and compacting hot mix asphalt with a paver, mix trucks and rollers. It covers the traffic interface, overhead lines, mix trucks feeding the paver, the paver and screed, hand work, compaction, fuel and fume, heat and noise, and finishing the shift. Traffic control set-up, bitumen spraying and whole-of-road construction need their own SWMS.

Asphalt paving is construction work, and the powered mobile plant item is pre-ticked because pavers, rollers and trucks move through the work area on every job. Tick the road in use item (WHS Regulation s 291(n)) when the paving is on, in or next to a road open to traffic other than pedestrians; leave it clear for a car park or new road closed to all traffic. A SWMS is required for high risk construction work under s 299.

New to SWMS? Read What Is A Safe Work Method Statement?

What Is Covered In Our Asphalt Paving SWMS?

After the standard pre-start checks, the job steps run from “Plan the paving run, brief the crew and confirm traffic management is in place” to “Finish the shift, clean tools and reopen the road”. The hazards and controls include:

• Burns from hot mix, screed and hot tools
• Hand or clothing drawn into the paver augers
• Reversing mix trucks and the paver
• Tipper body contacting overhead power lines
• Roller rollover at edges and soft ground
• Workers crushed by rollers and paver
• Vehicles entering the work zone
• Workers crossing live lanes
• Fire from LPG, fuel and solvents
• Asphalt fume and diesel exhaust
• Heat, noise and vibration
• Night work and fatigue

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 in an area at a workplace in which there is any movement of powered mobile plant

Licences, Training and Competency

• General construction induction training card (white card) for construction work, and site induction
• Training in working near traffic for everyone on or beside a road (the Traffic Management for Construction or Maintenance Work Code of Practice 2008 names the Working in Proximity to Traffic course)
• Accredited traffic controllers for anyone who stops or directs traffic; the set-up of the layout has its own SWMS
• Paver and roller operators trained and assessed on each machine (no high risk work licence class in Schedule 3 covers pavers, rollers or trucks)
• Driver licence of the right class for each truck driven on a public road (class not checked in the law library)
• Screed and hand crew trained in the hot mix SDS, burn first aid and joint heater use
• Spotters briefed on signals, blind spots and exclusion zones
• An adequate number of workers trained in first aid, including burn treatment (WHS Regulation s 42)

Legislation and Codes of Practice Referenced

• Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (Qld)
• Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (Qld)
• Managing Risks of Plant in the Workplace Code of Practice 2021
• Traffic Management for Construction or Maintenance Work Code of Practice 2008
• Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices Part 3 (MUTCD Part 3), the manual the Traffic Management code names for traffic guidance schemes
• Transport Operations (Road Use Management – Accreditation and Other Provisions) Regulation 2015 (Qld): traffic controller accreditation
• Managing Risks of Hazardous Chemicals in the Workplace Code of Practice 2021
• Hazardous Manual Tasks Code of Practice 2021
• Managing Noise and Preventing Hearing Loss at Work Code of Practice 2021
• Managing the Work Environment and Facilities Code of Practice 2021
• First Aid in the Workplace Code of Practice 2021
• How to Manage Work Health and Safety Risks Code of Practice 2021
• Excavation Work Code of Practice 2021 (plant and people rules in section 4.3)
• Electrical Safety Act 2002 (Qld)
• Electrical Safety Regulation 2026 (Qld): overhead and underground electric lines, exclusion zones in schedule 2
• Electrical Safety Code of Practice 2020 – Working near overhead and underground electric lines (distances come from the 2026 Regulation)
• Heavy Vehicle National Law (Queensland), applied by the Heavy Vehicle National Law Act 2012 (Qld): chain of responsibility (s 26C), mass and loading (ss 96, 111)
• Safe Work Australia model Code of Practice: Managing the risk of fatigue at work (guidance)

What You Get

• An editable Microsoft Word document (15 A4 landscape pages). Type your business, client and job details once and they fill in on every page, with a space for your logo
• 10 job steps for this work, each with its hazards, controls, initial and residual risk scores and the person responsible
• PPE listed for this job: high-visibility long-sleeve shirt and trousers suited to day and night work; heat-resistant gloves for hot mix and tool handling; safety boots with the trouser legs worn over the boot tops
• Emergency arrangements for: vehicle enters the work zone, hot asphalt or bitumen burn and plant or truck touches an overhead power line
• Plus the parts every Work Safety QLD SWMS shares, from the s 291 checklist to the worker sign-on sheet (see the layout in our free SWMS template)

Adjust it for your site, plant and crew, and talk it through with your workers before work starts. Please make sure you read our Disclaimer before downloading this SWMS.

Checked against the Queensland laws and codes of practice listed above. Last reviewed October 2026.