3. PLANNING THE DEMOLITION WORK
All electric, gas, water, sewer, steam and other service lines not required in the demolition process should be shut off, capped, or otherwise controlled, at or outside the building line, before demolition work is started.
In each case, any utility agency involved should be notified in advance and its approval or services, if necessary, obtained. Any service retained for the demolition work should be adequately protected as required by the relevant authority( for example, the protection of overhead electric lines).
Regulation 304
UNDERGROUND ESSENTIAL SERVICES
Where there are underground essential services that may be disturbed by the work, the demolition contractor must take all reasonable steps to obtain current information on the services prior to commencing work and:
• have regard for the information
• keep the information readily available for inspection under the WHS Act, and
• make the information available to any principal contractor and subcontractors
• retain the information until the excavation is completed or, if there is a notifiable incident relating to the excavation, 2 years after the incident occurs.
The available information about existing underground essential services may not be accurate. Therefore it is important that demolition methods include an initial examination of the area to be demolished.
FIGURE 1: Underground essential services exposed by‘ potholing’.
Further guidance on underground essential services and how to locate them is available in the Code of Practice: Construction Work.
CODE OF PRACTICE | DEMOLITION WORK 15