Bored and CFA Piling SWMS

Suits piling contractors and principal contractors using rotary bored or continuous flight auger (CFA) rigs on building and civil sites. It follows the job from planning and services checks through the working platform, rig set-up, boring, spoil and open holes, cage lowering and concrete placement to demobilisation.

Bored and CFA piling is high risk construction work: a pile bore is a shaft under the Regulation (its width is less than its depth) and structural piles are normally deeper than 1.5 metres (WHS Regulation s 291(g)), and powered mobile plant moves in the area (s 291(o)), so those two items are ticked. Untick the shaft item only if every bore is 1.5 metres deep or less. Tick the other items the job involves: energised electrical installations or services, gas mains or fuel lines, a road in use, a fall of more than 2 metres, and the contaminated atmosphere item when spoil creates silica dust, as the approved silica code advises. Driven and screw piles need separate 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 Bored and CFA Piling SWMS?

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

• Rig overturning on an unstable platform
• Entanglement in rotating augers and tooling
• Striking underground services
• Mast or crane contact with overhead power lines
• Spoil and rock flung from the hole
• People or plant falling into open bores
• Reinforcement cage falling or swinging
• Impalement on exposed reinforcing bars
• Hose whip and pressure in CFA concrete lines
• Wet concrete burns
• Concrete truck and plant collisions
• Noise, silica dust, contaminated spoil and heat

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 or near a shaft or trench with an excavated depth greater than 1.5m, or a tunnel
• 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
• No high risk work licence class applies to operating a piling rig (Schedule 3 names no piling class)
• Rig operator trained and verified competent on the make and model of rig, mast and tooling in use, with the manufacturer’s manual on the rig
• Piling crew experienced in the method (rotary bored or CFA), including spotters and the person who signals the rig
• High risk work licence for the class of any crane used to lower or hold the reinforcement cage (under a separate lifting SWMS)
• Dogging licence for anyone slinging the cage or other loads
• Competent person (geotechnical or piling engineer) to certify the working platform
• Trained person to use a cable and pipe locator and mark underground services
• Experienced concrete pump or line operator where concrete is pumped through the auger stem
• First aid certificate for at least one worker on site
• Site induction

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 (shafts and ground conditions)
• Managing Risks of Plant in the Workplace Code of Practice 2021
• Mobile Crane Code of Practice 2024 (lifting reinforcement cages)
• Concrete Pumping Code of Practice 2019 (pumped concrete lines, hose whip and line cleaning, including CFA rigs)
• Managing the Risk of Falls at Workplaces Code of Practice 2021
• Hazardous Manual Tasks Code of Practice 2021
• Managing Noise and Preventing Hearing Loss at Work Code of Practice 2021
• Managing respirable crystalline silica dust exposure in construction and manufacturing of construction elements Code of Practice 2022
• Managing Risks of Hazardous Chemicals in the Workplace Code of Practice 2021
• Managing the Work Environment and Facilities Code of Practice 2021
• Safe Design of Structures 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
• Electrical Safety Act 2002 (Qld)
• Electrical Safety Regulation 2026 (Qld): overhead line exclusion zones (ss 10 to 13 and sch 2) and underground electric lines (ss 14 and 15)
• Electrical Safety Code of Practice 2020 – Working near overhead and underground electric lines
• Traffic Management for Construction or Maintenance Work Code of Practice 2008 (truck movements near a road)

What You Get

• An editable Microsoft Word document (15 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.