Legal Definitions of Construction Work

Legal Definitions

Project: means any activity/development which includes or is intended to include construction work.

The PSDP: The Project Supervisor Design Process must be an individual or body corporate i.e. a limited company.  In general, this will be a firm of architects, chartered surveyors, consulting engineers or project managers.  It can also be the main contractor (e.g. in cases of design and build contracts or small projects with minimal design input).  In all cases the person or company undertaking the role must have the necessary competence to carry out the relevant duties.  The project supervisor design process must be appointed before design work commences.  This is to ensure effectiveness in addressing and co-ordinating safety and health matters from the very early stages of a project.

The Designer: The term designer would include:

  • architects and engineers contributing to, or having overall responsibility for the design
  • building services engineers designing details of fixed plant
  • surveyors specifying articles or substances or drawing up specifications
  • contractors carrying out design work as part of a design and build project
  • anyone with authority to specify, or alter the specification or designs to be used for the structure
  • designers of temporary works or specialist suppliers designing formwork and falsework
  • interior designers, shop fitters and landscape architects; and
  • specialist suppliers, specialist contractors or sub-contractors with design input.

The PSCS: The role of the project supervisor construction stage is to manage and co-ordinate health and safety matters during the construction stage.  The project supervisor construction stage is appointed before the construction work begins and remains in that position until all construction work on the project is completed.

Act of 1875 means the Explosives Act 1875.

Client means a person for whom a project is carried out.

Confined Space means any place which, by virtue of its enclosed nature creates conditions which give rise to a likelihood of accident, harm or injury of such a nature as to require emergency action due to—
(a) the presence or the reasonably foreseeable presence of—
(i) flammable or explosive atmospheres,
(ii) harmful gas, fume, or vapour,
(iii) free flowing solid or an increasing level of liquid,
(iv) excess of oxygen,
(v) excessively high temperature,
(b) lack or reasonably foreseeable lack of oxygen.

Construction Site means any site at which construction work in relation to a project is carried out;

Construction Stage means the period of time starting when preparation of the construction site begins and ending when construction work on the project is completed.

Construction work means the carrying out of any building, civil engineering or engineering construction work, other than drilling and extraction in the extractive industries as defined by the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work (Extractive Industries) Regulations 1997, and includes but is not limited to each of the following:
(a) the doing of one or more of the following with respect to a structure:
(i) construction;
(ii) alteration;
(iii) conversion;
(iv) fitting out;
(v) commissioning;
(vi) renovation;
(vii) repair;
(viii) upkeep;
(ix) redecoration or other maintenance, including cleaning involving the use of water or an abrasive at high pressure or the use of substances or mixtures classified as corrosive or toxic in accordance with Regulation (EC) No. 1272/20082 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the Classification, Labelling and Packaging of substances and mixtures or of the European Communities (Classification, Packaging and Labelling of Dangerous Preparations) Regulations 2004 (S.I. No. 62 of 2004);
(x) de-commissioning, demolition or dismantling;
(b) the preparation for an intended structure, including but not limited to site clearance, exploration, investigation (but not site survey) and
excavation, and the laying or installing of the foundations of an
intended structure;
(c) the assembly of prefabricated elements to form a structure, or the
disassembly of prefabricated elements which, immediately before
such disassembly, formed a structure;
(d) the removal of a structure or part of a structure or of any product
or waste resulting from demolition or dismantling of a structure or
disassembly of prefabricated elements which, immediately before
such disassembly, formed a structure;
(e) the installation, commissioning, maintenance, repair or removal of
mechanical, electrical, gas, compressed air, hydraulic, telecommunication and computer systems, or similar services which are normally
fixed within or to a structure;

Contractor means:
(a) a contractor or an employer whose employees undertake, carry out or manage construction work, or
(b) a person who—
(i) carries out or manages construction work for a fixed or other sum, and
(ii) supplies materials, labour or both, whether the contractor’s own labour or that of another, to carry out the work;

Contractor responsible for a construction site includes a contractor responsible for a part of the site over which the contractor has control;

Cycle Track means part of a road, including part of a footway or part of a roadway, which is reserved for the use of pedal cycles and from which all mechanically propelled vehicles, other than mechanically propelled wheelchairs, are prohibited from entering except for the purpose of access to and egress from such a road;

Design means the preparation of drawings, particulars, specifications, calculations and bills of quantities in so far as they contain specifications or other expressions of purpose, according to which a project, or any part or component of a project, is to be executed;

Designer means a person engaged in work related to the design of a project;

Design process means the process for preparing and designing a project, including alterations to the design and the design of temporary works to facilitate construction of the project;

Detonator means an initiator for explosives that contains a charge of high explosive fired by means of a flame, spark, electric current or shock tube;

Exploder means a device designed for firing detonators;

Explosives means explosive articles or explosive substances;

Explosive Article means an article containing one or more explosive substances;

Explosives store means a—
(a) magazine licensed under sections 6 to 8 of the Act of 1875,
(b) store licensed under section 15 of the Act of 1875, or
(c) premises registered in accordance with section 21 of the Act of 1875;

Explosive substances means a solid or liquid substance (or a mixture of substances) which is in itself capable by chemical reaction of producing gas at such a temperature and pressure and at such a speed as to cause damage to the surroundings;

FÁS means An Foras Áiseanna Saothair;

FETAC award  means an award made by the Further Education and Training Awards Council or a FETAC award awarded by QQI;

Footpath means a road over which there is a public right of way for pedestrians only, not being a footway;

Footway  means that portion of any road associated with a roadway which is provided primarily for use by pedestrians;

General Principles of Prevention” means the general principles of prevention specified in Schedule 3 to the Act;

Inspector means a person authorised under section 62 of the Act by the Health and Safety Authority or by a person prescribed under section 33 of the Act;

Locomotive means any self-propelled wheeled vehicle used on a line of rails for the movement of trucks or wagons;

Man-lock means any air lock or decompression chamber used for the compression or decompression of persons, but does not include an air lock which is only so used in emergency or a medical lock used solely for treatment purposes; “misfire” means an occurrence in relation to the firing of shots where—
(a) testing before firing reveals broken continuity which cannot be rectified, or
(b) a shot or any part of a shot fails to explode when an attempt is made
to fire it;

Mobile crane  means a crane capable of travelling under its own power, but
does not include such a crane which travels on a line of rails;

Plant or equipment means any gear, machine, rig, apparatus or appliance, or any part of any plant or equipment;

Project  means an activity which includes or is intended to include construction work;

Project Supervisor means an individual or a body corporate appointed under Regulation 6(1) and responsible for carrying out—
(a) the appropriate duties specified in these Regulations, and
(b) other duties that are—
(i) assigned to the person by the client at the time of appointment, and
(ii) necessary to allow the client to comply with section 17(1) of the Act;

QQI means Quality and Qualifications Ireland;

Road means a road, as defined in the Roads Act 1993 (No. 14 of 1993);

Roadway means that portion of a road which is provided primarily for the use of vehicles;

Rolling Stock” means a train or any other vehicle with flanged wheels which is designed to operate on rails or a railway;

Safety and Health Plan” means a plan in writing prepared and developed in accordance with Regulations 12 and 16;

Safety File” means a safety file prepared and completed in accordance with Regulations 13 and 21;

Safety Fuse” means a flexible cord that contains an internal burning medium by which fire is conveyed at a continuous and uniform rate for the purpose of firing plain detonators or blackpowder, without initiating burning in a similar fuse that may be in lateral contact alongside;

Shot means a single shot or a series of shots fired as part of one blast;

Shotfirer means a person appointed pursuant to Regulation 74 to be responsible for shot firing operations;

Shotfiring operations includes—
(a) checking to ensure that the blasting specification is still appropriate
for the site conditions at the time the blasting is to take place,
(b) mixing explosives,
(c) priming a cartridge,
(d) charging and stemming a shothole,
(e) linking or connecting a round of shots,
(f) withdrawal and sheltering of persons,
(g) inspecting and testing a shotfiring circuit,
(h) firing a shot,
(i) checking for misfires, and
(j) destroying surplus explosives;

 

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Download the Definition of Construction Work Terms here

 

 

 

You can find other Definitions outlined in Part 1 of  Safety, Health & Welfare at Work (Construction) Regulations 2013