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Posted By Martyn Hendrie
I seek the views of colleagues (especially those from construction) on when a utilities contractors work should be considered part of a Principal Contractors Project
In particular, where the client engages the utilities company under a separate contract and the service has to be brought from some distance along the public highway.
If the client establishes the services work as a seperate CDM project things are reasonably clear. If he doesn't, at what point should the PC include them in his arrangements for safety on the project?
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Rank: Guest
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Posted By John Caboche
In my experience the utilities contractors are regarded as "contractors" under CDM, working under the principle contractor. The PC usually undertakes services connection as part of the contract works and sub contracts this to the utilities.
Under CDM the PC must ensure that the contractors work is co-ordinated and complies with the safety rules in the construction phase H + S plan, that all contractors co-operate, and inform the PC of any hazards arising from their work amongst other things. In summary the PC has a functional responsibility to manage contractors. This would include the utilities by default as I cannot think of a single instance where the utilities worked directly for the client, but I'm happy to stand corrected if anyone else has experience of this. They will almost certainly be required to submit risk assessments and method statements to the PC to allow the PC to fulfill their management and co-ordination role.
Hope this helps
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Rank: Guest
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Posted By Martyn Hendrie
John,
I agree with your comments regarding the role of the PC when the utilities are engaged directly by the PC (usually under a form of subcontract)
However, it is not uncommon, especially in civil engineering projects, for the client to employ the utilities companies directly.
I such cases it may be necessary for the utilities company to bring the service some distance (often in the public highway) before making a connection within the site boundary. My question was seeking the views of others on when the PC should include the utilities contractor as part of his project.
Within the site boundary (yes, he is a contractor working on the project); immediately outside the site boundary (?); what about the situation where the works are 1 kilometre or more away from the site boundary?
There does not appear to me to be any unified approach to this area with HSE inspectors either considering the external works as a seperate project or looking for the entire utilities works to be included as part of the PC's project.
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Rank: Guest
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Posted By John Caboche
Martyn,
apologies for muddying the waters, I would still treat the utilities as contractors rather than as a separate PC for the purposes of the exercise, I've been involved in civil engineering both on the project management side and the H and S side for a while now, and I have always controlled the utilities as contractors, from and administration and management perspective it is much easier, part of the problem with what I percieve to be your situation (correct me if I'm wrong) is control of streetworks and responsibility for highways works. Many utilities require no permission to excavate in the hightway whereas the poor old civil engineering contractor has to jump through hoops to even lift a kerbstone. If the client wants to treat the utilities as PC until they get to the site boundry, my view is that, they will be his problem and not yours, legally speaking once inside the site boundry they are your contractor as you have legal possession of the site during construction works. Again CDM would depend on duration/man hours envisaged on whether the work would be notifiable, but would probably come under CDM regs as many would employ more than 5 persons for this type of work so the utility would have to provide a full construction phase plan, many in my experience don't like this and prefer to work as contractors under just a method statement.
Don't know if I've made that any clearer or made it worse.....
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Posted By Robert K Lewis
John
Just to correct you everybody who opens the public highway is subject to the notification and other requirements of the NRSW act. Only local authorities using their own employees for their own activities are exempt - technically even from the general requirements for signing and guarding etc training provision I believe.
On the substantial point I try to follow principle that the utility installer will become subject to the site management control as soon as they affect the access and delivery routes to site. The delivery routes can be more complex to handle as there is a tendency to not comprehend the difficulty they can cause for a busy site. Try receiving a steel delivery when the utilities people close a road, with LA permission, and divert traffic around the back streets. It is all about communication and co-ordination - even as a separate PC the utility company does need to act in its operations in a manner that is not deleterious to the safety of others.
Bob
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