Safety is essential for every construction project. It’s the duty of the contractor to ensure that every worker, client, and the visitor is safe when they’re on-site.
With all of the heavy equipment, materials, tools, and surrounding elements, construction sites are pretty dangerous. The best way to keep everyone safe is with stringent regulations. These regulations help you mitigate hazards and safety risks while construction is taking place.
By creating and using a site safety plan, you can help ensure that your construction project will be safe and completed without safety issues.
What is a Site Safety Plan?
A site safety plan is an intentional, drafted plan for every project that is focused on creating and ensuring a safe work site. It goes above and beyond the minimum OSHA requirements in order to mitigate hazards and issues that are site-specific.
Major construction projects are required to maintain site safety plans, as well as have a licensed site safety manager on-site. When not required, many contractors choose to create a site safety plan anyway, as a way to ensure the job site is as safe as possible.
Site safety plans must be created for most construction projects, including demolition, construction of a new building, excavations, underpinning, jobs with increased public risk, alteration of over half of the floor area, floor removal, and enlargement. These plans mitigate and prevent safety risks and hazards, helping to ensure the safety of the job site.
With a site safety plan, you will be able to reduce and contain collateral damage when there are incidents on the job site, as well as ensure that workers have clarity about how to avoid hazards and safety incidents. Certain states will not issue building permits until the approval of a site safety plan.
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What Needs to be Included in a Site Safety Plan?
There are multiple things that must be included in a site safety plan. While each specific project will have unique aspects that should be added to the site safety plan, there are minimum requirements that every plan must-have.
These minimum requirements are:
- The work site’s construction fences locations.
- Each fence’s gate location.
- If required, the location of an excavation site’s standard guardrails.
- A horizontal and vertical netting program that includes the initial installation details, as well as the horizontal jumps and vertical installation schedule. The program should also include areas for derrick lifting and cranes if horizontal netting is not applicable. Any department approvals should be included as well.
- Sidewalk shed locations. This must include application numbers, permit numbers, and expiration dates.
- Temporary walkway locations. This must include application numbers, permit numbers, and expiration dates.
- Motor vehicle ramp and footbridge locations. This must include application numbers, permit numbers, and expiration dates.
- Excavation side protection. This must include application numbers, permit numbers, and expiration dates.
- Sidewalk and street closing locations. This must include application numbers, permit numbers, and expiration dates.
- Loading areas, material, and personnel hoist locations. This must include application numbers, permit numbers, and expiration dates.
- Crane and derrick loading area locations.
- Information on surrounding buildings, which includes their location, their occupancy, their height, and also the type of roof protection, if required.
- Standpipe system and Siamese hose connection locations.
- Temporary fire department elevator locations, if applicable.
- Exterior contractor shed locations.
- Scaffolding and safety netting.
- Information about traffic including the width of all roads and sidewalks, traffic details, and exit locations.
- Site safety manager or site safety coordinator certificate copies. This includes the certificates for any alternates as well.
- Special sequencing features that are used to maintain the safety of the worksite, as well as a written description of sequences.
Statements of safety training completion and site-specific orientation by workers.
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What projects are considered a “Major Building”?
- An existing or proposed building 10 or more stories or 125 feet (38,100 mm) or more in height, or
- An existing or proposed building with a building footprint of 100,000 square feet (30,480 square meters) or more regardless of height, or
- An existing or proposed building so designated by the commissioner due to unique hazards associated with the construction or demolition of the structure.