Underground Service Locating SWMS

Suits locating contractors, civil crews and builders who find and mark underground cables and pipes before digging. It follows the job from obtaining services information and setting up traffic control through scanning, marking, recording the limits of the results, potholing and handover. Digging near services and hydro-excavation are covered by separate SWMS.

A SWMS is legally required for high risk construction work (WHS Regulation sections 291 and 299). Locating is construction work when it is connected with an excavation or with site preparation for construction (section 289), and work on or near energised electrical installations or services is pre-ticked on the cover. Tick the pressurised gas mains item and the chemical, fuel or refrigerant lines item if the job reaches those services, and the road or traffic corridor item if work is on or beside a road open to traffic.

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

What Is Covered In Our Underground Service Locating SWMS?

After the standard pre-start checks, the job steps run from “Plan the job and obtain underground services information” to “Backfill, remove markers and hand over”. The hazards and controls include:

• Striking buried electrical cables and gas mains
• Vehicles striking workers on or beside roads
• Out-of-date or incomplete services plans
• Locators and radar missing or misreading services
• Locator signals applied to unsafe cables
• Potholes collapsing or left open
• Dust and flying debris from vacuum or hand digging
• Gas, fuel and refrigerant release from damaged pipes
• Asbestos cement pipe found in the ground
• Slips, trips and sun exposure during long scans
• Strains from heavy radar carts and digging

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

Licences, Training and Competency

• General construction induction training card (white card) for construction work, and site induction
• Training and demonstrated competence in the electromagnetic locator and ground-penetrating radar used, including how to read and limit the results (Excavation Work Code of Practice 2021 s 3.6)
• Training in working near underground and overhead electric lines and in the electricity entity’s requirements
• Traffic control or traffic management qualification where work is on or beside a road open to traffic (separate SWMS)
• Operator competency for the vacuum truck, hydro-excavation unit or hand tools used for potholing
• Workers the PCBU reasonably believes may be involved in asbestos removal work or asbestos-related work are trained in the identification and safe handling of asbestos and ACM (WHS Regulation s 445); everyone else stops and reports anything that may be asbestos
• First aid equipment, facilities and trained first aiders (or access to them) as the work needs (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): s 304 (excavation work: underground essential services information) and s 305 (managing risks of excavation work)
• Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (Qld): s 306 (additional controls: trenches at least 1.5 m deep)
• Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (Qld): ss 419, 422, 445, 450 and 451 (asbestos) and ss 529A to 529CD (crystalline silica)
• Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (Qld): s 43 (emergency plan) and s 42 (first aid)
• 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
• Electrical Safety Code of Practice 2021 – Managing electrical risks in the workplace
• Excavation Work Code of Practice 2021
• Traffic Management for Construction or Maintenance Work Code of Practice 2008
• Managing Risks of Plant in the Workplace Code of Practice 2021
• Hazardous Manual Tasks Code of Practice 2021
• How to Manage and Control Asbestos in the Workplace Code of Practice 2021
• Managing respirable crystalline silica dust exposure in construction and manufacturing of construction elements Code of Practice 2022
• 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

What You Get

• An editable Microsoft Word document (14 A4 landscape pages). Type your business, client and job details once and they fill in on every page, with a space for your logo
• 8 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 footwear; high-visibility clothing (day and night rated as the site requires); hard hat on construction sites and where there is a risk of falling objects
• Emergency arrangements for: contact with an underground cable or strike, gas smell or escaping gas and vehicle strike or traffic near-miss
• 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.