TA-DL-06 · Drainlaying
Underground Drainage Installation Task Analysis
Installation of below-ground sewer and stormwater drainage, including trenching, pipe laying, jointing, pit and chamber work, testing and backfill.
What you get
One editable Word document covering underground drainage installation for Drainlaying: the task broken into steps, the hazards at each step, the controls, and a 5 by 5 risk matrix with residual ratings. Site fields and a crew sign-on are built in.
A Task Analysis is also known as a JSA (Job Safety Analysis) or JSEA. It covers each step of the job, the hazards and the controls.
The steps and hazards it covers
| Step | Hazards |
|---|---|
| Plan, prepare and confirm competency | Workers without the required training, competence or authorisation performing the task - incidents arising from lack of skill, competency or authorityDefective or unsafe plant, powered equipment, leads or attachments failing in useWorking on other people's sites, occupied premises or around the public |
| Locate services and design the trench | Striking services or collapse from unplanned excavation |
| Excavate the trench and install ground support | Trench wall collapse burying workers - engulfment |
| Lay and joint pipes in the trench | Crush from lowered pipes; strain handling in the trenchSolvent cement vapour and skin contact in the trench or pits |
| Work on asbestos cement drains | Cutting, jetting or breaking asbestos cement (AC) pipe releasing respirable fibres |
| Work around the excavator | Bucket strike on crew in the trench |
| Enter pits, chambers and live sewer connections | Hazardous atmosphere in pits and chambers - H2S, methane or oxygen deficiency, fatalitySewage contact at live connections - biological infection (hepatitis, leptospirosis, gastro) |
| Manage groundwater and weather | Trench flooding and wall softening |
| Test the line | Fittings or test plugs ejected under test pressure |
| Backfill, reinstate and demobilise | Crew struck during backfill; pipe damage from poor compactionPublic or workers falling into open trench outside work hours |
Each hazard comes with its control measures, an initial and residual risk rating and the person responsible, ready to check against your job.
How to use it
Read it against the actual job. Delete the hazards that are not there, add the ones that are, fill the site fields, then brief the crew and get every name on the sign-on. A document nobody has read is a piece of paper. One the crew helped finish supports worker consultation and records the agreed work method. Engagement under HSWA ss58 to 59 is an ongoing process of seeking and considering workers’ views, so the signed page is evidence of part of it rather than the whole duty.
About Drainlaying Task Analysis
This is one of the Task Analysis documents written for Drainlaying crews. The trade covers trench excavation and shoring, foul and stormwater, connections, chambers and confined spaces, reinstatement.
See every Drainlaying document, or the whole pack for $199.99. Need 5 or more templates from this trade? The pack costs less than buying them individually, and saves $49.96 at 5.
Where it sits in the law
New Zealand does not require a document of this name. The duty is to manage risk so far as is reasonably practicable (HSWA s36) and to engage workers on it (ss58 to 59). Use a Task Analysis to plan the work, identify the hazards and communicate the controls to your crew. That is also how you evidence both duties.
WorkSafe names “a task analysis, safe work method statement (SWMS), job safety analysis or equivalent planning document” as the same thing done under different headings, and Site Safe titles one of its own SSSP forms “Task Analysis (TA) and Safe Work Method Statement (SWMS)”. So if the paperwork you have been sent asks for a TA, a SWMS or a JSA, this is the document it means, written to the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015. Only the name changes; the hazards, controls and ratings are the same either way.
Where this sits in your SSSP
A Site-Specific Safety Plan (SSSP) covers the whole job: who is on site, how hazards get reported, what happens in an emergency. A Task Analysis covers one task inside it. They are not the same document. Site Safe’s SSSP pack runs to ten forms, and the Task Analysis is Form 10, filed behind the plan itself.
So a main contractor who asks which SSSP pack you are using, and then asks for a TA covering underground drainage installation, has asked you for two separate things. This is the second one. Keep it with your SSSP for the job and bring it to the pre-start briefing, because the value is in the crew having read it before the work starts.