Road Construction SWMS

For civil and road construction contractors, council works crews and subcontractors who build, widen and rehabilitate roads and pavements. It follows the work in order, from planning the work zone and locating services to earthworks, kerb, base, asphalt and spray sealing, with plant working together and traffic beside the crew covered throughout.

This SWMS ticks three high risk construction work items from s 291 of the WHS Regulation: work on or beside a road in use by traffic (s 291(n)), movement of powered mobile plant (s 291(o)) and work near energised electrical installations or services (s 291(k)); a SWMS is required before such work starts (s 299). Untick the road item for a new road closed to all traffic other than pedestrians, and the electrical item where no energised installation or service is near. Tick the contaminated atmosphere item (s 291(l)) where milling, cutting or breaking creates silica dust, as the approved silica code treats that work as high risk.

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 Road Construction SWMS?

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

• Workers struck by plant and trucks in the work zone
• Vehicles entering the work zone from live traffic
• Contact with overhead power lines and buried services
• Collapse and falls at excavation and pavement edges
• Hot asphalt and hot bitumen burns
• Fire from burners, binders and solvents
• Crush injuries at the paver, screed and tipper trucks
• Lime, cement and wet concrete burns
• Silica dust from milling, cutting and concrete
• Noise from plant and saws
• Heat illness, sun and night work
• Loose stone and open edges when lanes reopen

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
• Site induction covering the traffic management plan, work zone, plant movement rules and emergency arrangements
• Training in working near traffic for everyone on or beside a road (the Working in Proximity to Traffic course is the one the Traffic Management for Construction or Maintenance Work Code of Practice 2008 names)
• Accredited traffic controllers for anyone who stops or directs traffic; set-up of the traffic control layout has its own SWMS
• Plant operators trained and assessed on each machine and attachment (no high risk work licence class covers graders, rollers, pavers, milling machines, loaders or excavators)
• Driver licence of the right class for each vehicle driven on a public road
• High risk work licence for the class of any crane, forklift truck or vehicle loading crane (10 metre tonnes or more) lifting kerb units, pits or pipes; dogging or a higher rigging class for anyone slinging a load or directing a plant operator when the load is out of the operator’s view
• Spotters and safety observers briefed on signals, blind spots, exclusion zones and power line distances
• Trained operators for the cable and pipe locator, bitumen sprayer and aggregate spreader
• Crystalline silica training where the dust assessment finds the work high risk
• Trained first aider on the crew

Legislation and Codes of Practice Referenced

• Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (Qld)
• Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (Qld)
• 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 Plant in the Workplace Code of Practice 2021
• Excavation Work Code of Practice 2021
• Managing respirable crystalline silica dust exposure in construction and manufacturing of construction elements Code of Practice 2022
• Managing Noise and Preventing Hearing Loss at Work Code of Practice 2021
• Managing the Work Environment and Facilities Code of Practice 2021
• Managing Risks of Hazardous Chemicals in the Workplace Code of Practice 2021
• Hazardous Manual Tasks 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
• Mobile Crane Code of Practice 2024 (where a crane or vehicle loading crane lifts kerb units, pits or pipes)
• 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, dimension and loading (ss 96, 102, 111) for tipper and asphalt trucks
• Safe Work Australia model Code of Practice: Managing the risk of fatigue at work (guidance)

What You Get

• An editable Microsoft Word document (21 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.