Screw Pile Installation SWMS

Suits piling, footing and civil contractors who install screw piles with a hydraulic drive head on an excavator, skid steer or piling rig. It covers planning, services and overhead lines, set-up, handling piles, fitting the drive head, screwing in, torque monitoring, cut-offs and pack-up. Driven piles need a separate SWMS; bored piles are covered by the Bored and CFA Piling SWMS.

Work in an area where powered mobile plant moves is high risk construction work (WHS Regulation s 291(o)), so that item is ticked. Tick the other items the job involves, for example energised electrical installations or services, gas or fuel lines, a road in use, a trench or shaft deeper than 1.5 metres, or the contaminated atmosphere item when digging creates silica dust.

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 Screw Pile Installation 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 underground electrical, gas and water services
• Contact with overhead power lines
• Torque reaction twisting or tipping the machine
• Entanglement in the rotating pile and tooling
• Workers struck by the machine or a swinging pile
• Machine overturning on soft or sloping ground
• Dropped drive head or pile during lifting
• Hydraulic oil injection from hoses and couplings
• Manual handling of heavy piles and extensions
• Fire and fumes when cutting or welding piles
• Impalement and trips on protruding pile ends
• Noise and sun exposure

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

• General construction induction training card (white card) for construction work
• Operator trained and assessed as competent on the host machine and the drive head (no high risk work licence class applies to operating an excavator or a screw pile rig)
• High risk work licence in the dogging class, or a higher rigging class (Schedule 3), for anyone who slings a load or directs the operator when the load is out of view (Schedule 19, dogging work)
• High risk work licence for the class of crane used (Schedule 3) if a crane lifts the piles
• Training in the pile design, torque monitoring and installation procedure for the system used
• Trained operator for the cable and pipe locator
• Spotter briefed on hand signals, the exclusion zone and overhead line clearances
• Site induction
• Workers trained in hot work where cutting or welding is done

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
• Managing Risks of Plant in the Workplace Code of Practice 2021
• Mobile Crane Code of Practice 2024 (earthmoving plant used as a crane)
• Hazardous Manual Tasks Code of Practice 2021
• Managing Noise and Preventing Hearing Loss at Work Code of Practice 2021
• Welding Processes Code of Practice 2021
• Safe Design of Structures Code of Practice 2021 (engineer’s design)
• Managing Risks of Hazardous Chemicals in the Workplace Code of Practice 2021
• Traffic Management for Construction or Maintenance Work Code of Practice 2008 (work beside a road)
• How to Manage Work Health and Safety Risks Code of Practice 2021
• Managing the Work Environment and Facilities Code of Practice 2021
• First Aid in the Workplace Code of Practice 2021
• Electrical Safety Act 2002 (Qld)
• Electrical Safety Regulation 2026 (Qld): exclusion zones for overhead lines (schedule 2) and damage to underground lines (ss 14-15)
• 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.