Horizontal Directional Drilling SWMS

Suits utility, telecommunications and civil crews who drill and ream horizontal bores for conduits and pipes. It follows the job from services information and site set-up through pit excavation, pilot boring, rod handling, fluid, reaming and strike response to backfill. Fluid management and pipe pull-back are covered by separate SWMS.

Pre-ticked: work near energised underground electric services, work beside a road in use, and powered mobile plant movement. Also tick the pressurised gas main item and the chemical, fuel or refrigerant line item if the services information shows those lines near the bore path, the shaft or trench item if an entry or exit pit works as a trench deeper than 1.5 m, and the confined space item if a pit is a confined space.

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 Horizontal Directional Drilling 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 buried electricity, gas and other services
• Electric shock after a cable strike
• Rotating rods entangling hands and clothing
• Hands caught in rod joints and tongs
• Pit and trench collapse
• Falls into open pits
• Fluid injection under the skin
• Frac-out and fluid spills
• Workers struck by passing vehicles
• Rig overturn on soft ground
• Noise and vibration
• Strains lifting rods and tooling

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 energised electrical installations or services
• Is carried out on, in or adjacent to a road, railway, shipping lane or other traffic corridor that is in use by traffic other than pedestrians
• 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
• HDD rig operator trained and assessed as competent on the rig and locator used (no high risk work licence class applies to operating a drill rig)
• Training in working near underground and overhead electric lines and in the electricity entity’s requirements
• Locator and tracker operator competent in the equipment and in reading the signal
• Trained driller’s offsider for rod handling and fluid mixing
• Accredited traffic controllers where traffic control is needed on or beside a road (Transport Operations (Road Use Management – Accreditation and Other Provisions) Regulation 2015 ss 51, 54, 55; separate SWMS)
• Crystalline silica training where the dust assessment finds the work high risk
• Site induction

Legislation and Codes of Practice Referenced

• Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (Qld)
• Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (Qld)
• Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (Qld): s 304 (underground essential services information) and s 305 (managing risks of excavation work)
• Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (Qld): s 306 (additional controls for trenches at least 1.5 m deep)
• Excavation Work Code of Practice 2021
• Managing Risks of Plant in the Workplace Code of Practice 2021
• Hazardous Manual Tasks Code of Practice 2021
• Managing Risks of Hazardous Chemicals in the Workplace 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
• Traffic Management for Construction or Maintenance Work Code of Practice 2008
• Transport Operations (Road Use Management – Accreditation and Other Provisions) Regulation 2015 (Qld): traffic controllers, sections 51 to 55
• Managing the Work Environment and Facilities 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): ss 14 and 15 (underground electric lines)
• Electrical Safety Regulation 2026 (Qld): ss 10 to 13 and sch 2 (overhead power line exclusion zones and unsafe distances)
• Electrical Safety Code of Practice 2020 – Working near overhead and underground electric lines

What You Get

• An editable Microsoft Word document (13 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.