Drainage Installation SWMS

Suits civil, drainage and plumbing contractors who install stormwater and sanitary drainage in trenches, including pits, pipe laying, connections to existing drains and backfill. It covers locating services, traffic and pedestrian control, excavation, trench support and entry, concrete cutting, pipe handling and lifting, heat, and pack-up.

Moving powered mobile plant is part of every drainage installation on a construction site, so that high risk construction work item is ticked (WHS Regulation ss 289 and 291(o)). Tick the other items the job involves: a trench deeper than 1.5 metres, energised electrical installations or services, gas mains or fuel lines, a road in use, and the contaminated atmosphere item (s 291(l)) when cutting concrete or pavement creates silica dust, as the approved Queensland silica code advises.

New to SWMS? Read What is a safe work method statement?

What is covered in our drainage installation SWMS?

After the standard pre-start checks, the job steps run from “Locate and confirm underground services” to “Pack up and complete the work”. The hazards and controls include:

• Striking underground electrical, gas and water services
• Trench wall collapse and burial
• Falling into open trenches
• Struck by excavators, trucks and swinging loads
• Contact with overhead power lines
• Traffic and the public entering the work area
• Dropped pipes and pits when lifting
• Toxic gas and low oxygen in existing pits and sewers
• Sewage contact and infection
• Respirable crystalline silica dust from cutting concrete
• Solvent cement fumes and fire
• Manual handling of pipes and pits
• Heat illness and sunburn

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

• Drainers licence under the Plumbing and Drainage Act 2018 (Qld) for sanitary (sewage) drainage work below ground level; an unlicensed person may do drainage work only under the direct supervision of a licensee
• Verification of competency for each excavator, backhoe or other earthmoving machine and attachment used (no high risk work licence class covers earthmoving plant)
• High risk work licence in the dogging class, or a higher rigging class (Schedule 3), for anyone who slings a load 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)
• General construction induction training card (white card)
• Site induction
• Traffic controller accreditation for anyone directing traffic
• Confined space entry training for anyone who must enter an existing pit or drain
• Crystalline silica training (VET accredited course or training approved by the regulator) where the dust assessment finds the cutting high risk

Legislation and codes of practice referenced

• Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (Qld)
• Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (Qld)
• Plumbing and Drainage Act 2018 (Qld)
• Plumbing and Drainage Regulation 2019 (Qld)
• Queensland Plumbing and Wastewater Code, version 1, 2025 (approved under the Plumbing and Drainage Regulation 2019)
• Excavation Work Code of Practice 2021
• Managing Risks of Plant in the Workplace Code of Practice 2021
• Confined Spaces Code of Practice 2021
• Managing respirable crystalline silica dust exposure in construction and manufacturing of construction elements Code of Practice 2022
• 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
• Mobile Crane Code of Practice 2024 (earthmoving plant used as a crane, and quick hitches)
• Traffic Management for Construction or Maintenance Work Code of Practice 2008
• Managing the Work Environment and Facilities 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): underground electric lines and overhead line exclusion zones in schedule 2
• Electrical Safety Code of Practice 2020 – Working near overhead and underground electric lines
• Safe Work Australia model Code of Practice: Managing the risks of biological hazards at work (guidance)

What you get

• An editable Microsoft Word document (15 pages), laid out on 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: safety boots; high-visibility long-sleeved shirt and long trousers; hard hat and safety glasses; gloves suited to the task (leather for pipes, chemical-resistant for primer and cement)
• Emergency arrangements for: trench collapse, plant contacts a live line or strikes a cable and gas or fumes in a pit or drain
• 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.

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