Bridge Girder Installation SWMS

For bridge builders, civil contractors, riggers and crane crews who lift and place bridge girders. It follows the work from the documented lifting procedure and load paths through site and crane set-up, exclusion zones, bearings and temporary works, slinging, single and dual crane lifts, to landing, securing and releasing each girder. Operating the crane itself is covered by separate SWMS.

Bridge girder installation is construction work and involves a risk of a fall of more than 2 metres and powered mobile plant, so those two high risk construction items are ticked. Tick the other items that fit the job, such as precast concrete girders (item m), a road or railway in use below or beside the work (item n), water with a drowning risk (item q) or energised overhead lines (item k).

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

What Is Covered In Our Bridge Girder Installation SWMS?

After the standard pre-start checks, the job steps run from “Plan the lift, the load paths and the temporary works” to “Pack up, inspect and make the work safe at the end of each shift”. The hazards and controls include:

• Girder dropped or crane overloaded
• Crane overturning on soft or undermined ground
• Two cranes sharing a dual lift unevenly
• Girder rolling or falling once released
• Falls of more than 2 metres at piers and abutments
• Contact with overhead power lines
• Loads lifted over people, traffic, rail or water
• Temporary works failing or removed too early
• Tools and packers falling from height
• Wind catching the girder
• Delivery vehicles and girder storage
• Crushed hands at bearings and slings

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:

• Involves a risk of a person falling more than 2m
• 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 everyone doing construction work (WHS Regulation ss 316 and 317), and the principal contractor’s site induction
• High risk work licence for every crane operator, for the class of mobile crane used by type and capacity (Schedule 3 items 14 to 18)
• Dogging licence (Schedule 3 item 4), or a rigging class that includes dogging (items 5 to 7), for whoever does dogging work as Schedule 19 defines it: applying slinging techniques, including selecting and inspecting lifting gear, to safely sling a load, or directing a plant operator in the movement of a load out of the operator’s view; a trainee works only under a licensed dogger’s supervision (WHS Regulation ss 81 and 82(1)); the crane operator should not do their own dogging (Mobile Crane Code of Practice 2024 section 7.2)
• Intermediate or advanced rigging licence for whoever directs a dual crane lift (Schedule 3 item 6(f); code section 11.3.1); check the class against the Schedule 3 item for the girder material and the lift
• Engineer experienced in rigging practices for bridge construction, to document and approve how each landed girder is temporarily secured (code section 12.5); an engineer also designs or approves any temporary works (good practice, nearest guide Formwork Code of Practice 2016 section 2.2.1)
• Geotechnical engineer to give written ground bearing information for the crane standing areas when lifting bridge beams of 10 tonnes or more (code section 8.2.5)
• Competent person to prepare the site-specific documented lifting procedure and the load path plan (code section 7.5)
• Trained safety observer, with no other duties (including dogging), wherever a crane or girder could approach an overhead power line exclusion zone (code section 9.1.2)
• Licensed scaffolder (Schedule 3 items 1 to 3) for access scaffolding work (a fall of more than 4 m: Schedule 19); high risk work licence for a boom-type elevating work platform with a boom of 11 m or more (Schedule 3 item 21)
• Accredited traffic controllers for anyone who stops or directs road traffic
• Workers trained in the fall protection system they use, including the rescue plan, and an adequate number trained in first aid (WHS Regulation s 42)

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): ss 289 to 291 and 299 to 303 (construction work, high risk construction work and safe work method statements), s 219 (plant that lifts or suspends loads), ss 78 to 80 and 306C to 306J (falls), ss 315B to 315M (falling objects and loads lifted over an adjoining area), ss 294 and 295 (designers)
• Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (Qld): ss 81, 82 and 85, and Schedules 3 and 19 (high risk work licences; dogging work and rigging work)
• Mobile Crane Code of Practice 2024 (sections 7.5 documented lifting procedures, 8.2 ground and crane support, 8.4 wind, 9.1 power lines, 11.3 multiple crane lifts, 12.5 lifting and landing pre-cast bridge beams)
• Tilt-up and Pre-cast Construction Industry Code of Practice 2003 (precast girders: lifting precast elements over workers, section 13.2)
• Steel Construction Advisory Standard 2004 (steel girders: lifting, stability and bracing)
• Formwork Code of Practice 2016 (nearest guide for temporary structures that support a permanent structure until it is self-supporting: sections 1.1 and 2.2.1; written for concrete formwork and falsework)
• Safe Design of Structures Code of Practice 2021
• Managing Risks of Plant in the Workplace Code of Practice 2021
• 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 the Work Environment and Facilities Code of Practice 2021
• Traffic Management for Construction or Maintenance Work Code of Practice 2008
• First Aid in the Workplace Code of Practice 2021
• How to Manage Work Health and Safety Risks Code of Practice 2021
• Electrical Safety Act 2002 (Qld)
• Electrical Safety Regulation 2026 (Qld): ss 10 to 13 and schedule 2 (overhead power line exclusion zones) and ss 14 and 15 (underground electric lines)
• Electrical Safety Code of Practice 2020 – Working near overhead and underground electric lines
• Heavy Vehicle National Law (Queensland), applied by the Heavy Vehicle National Law Act 2012 (Qld): s 6 (heavy vehicle means a vehicle with a GVM or ATM of more than 4.5 t), s 26C (primary duty of each party in the chain of responsibility), s 96 (compliance with mass requirements), s 110 (national regulations may prescribe loading requirements), s 111 (compliance with the loading requirements) and s 228 (duty of driver to avoid driving while fatigued or unfit to drive)

What You Get

• An editable Microsoft Word document (21 A4 landscape pages). Type your business, client and job details once and they fill in on every page, with a space for your logo
• 11 job steps for this work, each with its hazards, controls, initial and residual risk scores and the person responsible
• PPE listed for this job: hard hat, safety boots with toe protection, and safety glasses; high-visibility clothing with long sleeves
• Emergency arrangements for: girder dropped, crane overturns or boom fails, crane or girder touches an overhead line and person falls and is left hanging, or falls into water
• 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 November 2026.