TA-FN-06 · Fencing
Fence Installation Task Analysis
Installation of timber, steel (Colorbond), chain wire and security fencing including set-out, post holes, concrete footings, panel and rail fixing, and gates.
What you get
One editable Word document covering fence installation for Fencing: 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 |
| Set out & locate buried services | Striking buried power, gas, water or comms digging post holes - fence lines follow service routes causing electrocution, gas escape or flooding |
| Dig post holes with powered auger / post-hole borer | Entanglement in rotating auger or PTO drive - clothing, gloves or limbs drawn in causing severe injury or deathOpen holes and hand-digging strain |
| Mix & place concrete footings | Wet concrete alkali burns, dermatitis and eye splash; silica dust from bagged mix |
| Handle & fix posts, panels & rails | Manual handling strain and cuts from heavy posts, sheet panels and rails |
| Cut & grind steel posts, rails & mesh | Angle grinder / cut-off saw cutting steel - sparks, cuts, hot metal, kickback, noise and treated-timber dust |
| Hang gates & install chain wire / wire | Stored-energy wire snap-back during tensioning - whip causing eye, face and laceration injuriesCrush and pinch installing and hanging heavy gates |
| Complete, clean up & demobilise | Open holes, wire offcuts and unsecured runs left as hazards |
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 Fencing Task Analysis
This is one of the Task Analysis documents written for Fencing crews. The trade covers post hole boring and services, timber, mesh and pool fencing, gates and hardware, work on boundaries and berms.
See every Fencing 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 fence 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.