Groundworks sit at the start of most projects and involve the highest-consequence hazards: trench collapse, striking buried gas, electric or water services, and plant moving around people on foot. Your RAMS is where you show how you will locate services, support or batter the excavation, control access to it and separate people from machines.
HSE’s guidance on avoiding danger from underground services, known as HSG47, and its excavation guidance are the starting points for most groundwork RAMS.
Hazards a groundworks RAMS should cover
Every job and site is different, but a groundworks RAMS will usually need to deal with most of the following.
- Striking buried services such as gas, electric, water and telecoms
- Excavation collapse and the need for support or battering
- Falls into excavations and edge protection
- Plant and vehicle movements, and pedestrian segregation
- Manual handling of pipes, kerbs, slabs and chambers
- Concrete handling and cement burns
- Noise, dust and hand-arm vibration from breakers and compactors
- Confined spaces in chambers and drainage
What is in the AutoRAMS groundworks library
AutoRAMS holds 103 groundworks job types in 12 categories. Each job comes with a written sequence of operation, the hazards that go with it, who could be harmed, and the controls. You choose the jobs you are doing, tick what applies on site, and the RAMS is assembled around your answers.
For example, Excavation & Trenching starts you off with a 13-step sequence of operation. The library also holds general hazards for the trade, including:
- Striking buried services (gas, electric, water, telecoms) during excavation
- Excavation or trench sides collapsing due to lack of support, unstable ground or surcharge loading
- Falling into an open excavation, trench or pit
Jobs you can choose from
- Drainage – Pipes & Chambers (15): Drainage Installation, New Foul Drainage Installation, New Surface Water Drainage Installation and more
- Roads, Paving & External Works (15): Kerb Installation, Block Paving Installation, Slab/Flag Paving Installation and more
- Site Preparation & Earthworks (15): Ground Reduction, Site Clearance & Ground Preparation, Sub-base Installation & Compaction and more
- Foundations & Concrete (13): Strip Foundation Installation, Pad Foundation Installation, Concrete Slab Installation and more
- Excavation & Utility Exposure (9): Excavation & Trenching, Excavation Requiring Temporary Support, Deep Excavation and more
- Utilities & Ducting (8): Service Trench Installation, Utility Duct Installation, Utility draw-pit / chamber installation and more
- Structures, Furniture & Boundaries (7): Retaining Wall Groundworks, Bollard Installation, Fence Post/Gate Foundation Installation and more
- SuDS & Storage (6): Soakaway Installation, Attenuation Tank Installation, Flow-control / Hydro-Brake chamber installation and more
- Tanks & Treatment (5): Septic Tank Installation, Interceptor Installation, Septic-tank decommissioning / removal and more
- Specialist / Confined / Temporary Works (4): Confined-Space Drainage Work, Sheet-pile / excavation support enabling works, Temporary surface-water management and more
- Landscaping Interface (4): Topsoil placement and grading, Turf preparation and laying, Tree-pit construction and more
- Other jobs (2): Earthworks/Reduced-Level Excavation, Trench Reinstatement
Legislation and standards a groundworks RAMS often refers to
- Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015, which cover excavations
- HSE HSG47, Avoiding danger from underground services
- Confined Spaces Regulations 1997
- Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 (PUWER)
- Control of Vibration at Work Regulations 2005
Your competent person should check which of these apply to your job and make sure the RAMS reflects them.
How to produce a groundworks RAMS in minutes
- Pick the jobs. Choose groundworks and the job types you are doing.
- Tick what is on site. Tell AutoRAMS about access, the public, services, working at height and so on.
- Add the site and the team. Name, address, dates and who is working.
- Generate and review. Download a branded PDF with your logo, then have your competent person check and approve it before use.
Frequently asked questions
What must a groundworks RAMS say about buried services?
It should say how services are located before digging, for example with plans, a cable avoidance tool and trial holes, and how digging is carried out near them. See our guide to safe digging for the full approach.
How deep before an excavation needs support?
There is no safe depth to assume. Excavations can collapse at shallow depths, so your RAMS should record how the sides are supported or battered and who inspects them.
Does a drainage job need a different RAMS from a foundations job?
Usually, yes. Drainage adds pipework handling, chambers and possible confined-space work, while foundations bring concrete, formwork and plant. AutoRAMS keeps them as separate job types for that reason.