Construction projects come big and complex as well as small and simple, but one thing they all share is a construction phase plan. The construction phase plan is a critical construction project management document that helps to ensure a safe project.
Before explaining how to make a construction phase plan, let’s first define the term and note some of the many reasons why one should use it. At the end of the blog, we’ll provide links to some related construction project management templates that can help you with your construction phase plan.
What Is a Construction Phase Plan?
A construction phase plan is a document that outlines the health and safety concerns of a specific construction project. For this reason, the construction phase plan is sometimes referred to as a construction phase health and safety plan. Whatever you call it, the purpose is to ensure that the construction job site achieves the highest safety standards and project safety goals.
The construction phase plan will cover the job site rules and whatever necessary procedures are in place all of which are working towards reducing or eliminating risk. Once done, the document will be used to communicate any significant risks, what the site rules are and the health and safety arrangements for everyone involved with the construction project.
All projects have health and safety risks associated with them and, therefore, require the use of a construction phase plan. But the construction phase plan size will be determined by the size of the project. For instance, a larger construction project will have a more in-depth document with greater details than a smaller project. Either way, the construction phase plan is drawn up during the pre-construction phase, before the construction site is set up.
Creating a construction phase plan is part of the larger management process of construction, which is aided by the use of project management software. ProjectManager is award-winning project management software that helps construction managers plan, manage and track their work in real time. Our powerful Gantt chart organizes tasks into a schedule, all of which can be seen on a visual timeline, with milestones and all four types of task dependencies linked. You can also filter for the critical path to identify the essential tasks. Then set a baseline to capture the project plan and compare it to your actual progress in real time to help you stay on schedule. Get started with ProjectManager today for free.
Why Should You Use a Construction Phase Plan?
The principal contractor is responsible for creating the construction phase plan as they are the one who will oversee the management and control of the construction project. The construction phase plan must be compliant with all health and safety issues. If it’s not, the contractor can be liable.
Construction projects can be very dangerous. There is heavy equipment being used, often at great heights, and crews can be using hazardous materials. The use of a construction phase plan looks at all the inherent risks associated with the construction project and makes sure that the subcontractors and their crews are safe.
There are also many rules and regulations, codes and other government agency restrictions that a construction site must be compliant with. The construction phase plan will ensure that these health and safety issues are addressed and communicated with everyone on the job site before any work being performed.
What Should Be Included In a Construction Phase Plan?
Every construction phase plan is individually tailored to the specific construction project and so they can be very different from one site to another. That’s because each construction project has unique health and safety requirements attached to it. But, that said, there are some boilerplate parts of every construction phase plan, which we’ve listed and explained below.
Project Description
The project description will outline the project scope and include any important dates and deadlines associated with the construction project. The different phases should be outlined and when the project is proposed to conclude.
Description of the Project Team
There should also be a list of the project management team, the client, contractors and subcontractors, consultants, designer, key suppliers and so on. There should not only be names, but also contact information for each.
Arrangements for Managing the Construction Phase Work
The management arrangements are detailed in this section as they pertain to the health and safety procedures so they are clearly defined. Any job site rules are also outlined here, including the responsibilities and key management procedures. That can be anything from site security, the selection of contractors to training, accident management, on-site liaisons, induction and emergency procedures.
List of Construction Risks
All projects have risk and construction projects seem to have the most, at least as they pertain to health and safety. Therefore, those site safety and health risks should be identified in detail, including their impact on the project and the likelihood of their occurrence.
Arrangements for Controlling Construction Risks
Each risk should be assigned to a team member and a plan to mitigate or eliminate that risk should be made. Any arrangements for site safety will also be addressed, such as those involving structures, electricity and other services, excavations, deliveries, lifting operations, heavy machinery or plant use and demolition. There are also health risks and precautions need to be made to remove hazardous substances, manual handling, exposure to noise or UV radiation and more. The plan will also take into account public safety and traffic management.
Health & Safety File
The health and safety file collects all the health and safety information and serves as a legal record for both the clients and end users from the initial construction through the use, cleaning, maintenance, alterations and refurbishment and demolition.
Construction Project Management Templates
Of course a construction phase plan is only one of many documents that have to be created when managing a construction project. ProjectManager has unlimited file storage to have all those construction documents at your fingertips whenever you need them. But if you’re not ready to upgrade to project management software quite yet, our site has dozens of free project management templates for Excel and Word, including these three construction project management templates you can download right now.
Construction Schedule Template
As you’re working on deadlines for the construction phase plan, you’re making the first steps towards a construction schedule. Our free construction schedule template can help you organize all your tasks and much more. You can detail project deliverables, add resource management and asset allocations. Of course, there are also milestones, but you can filter for the critical path, link dependencies and create a project budget. But we’ll get to more on that last point in the next free template.
Construction Estimate Template
When creating a budget for your construction project it’s essential to make the most accurate forecast possible. If not, those extra costs can come out of your profits. That’s why our free construction estimate template for Excel is so important. The free template is broken down into each of the phases of a project, with a place to list all the tasks, the vendor or subcontractor associated with that work and then the labor and material costs. Use our free construction estimate template with historical data and expert advice to have an accurate estimate of your budget and keep your profit margin.
Construction Daily Report Template
The construction phase plan sets up and communicates the health and safety precautions for the job site, but every day someone needs to create a detailed report to ensure that those protocols and other procedures are being followed. Using our free construction daily report template for Excel does that and much more. It captures all the construction work that was done, whether it was completed on time or if there are delays. The daily report also lists the crew members, site managers, materials and equipment required for the next day, all the visitors to the site and even weather conditions.
How ProjectManager Helps You Manage Construction Projects
Once you start using templates, as helpful as they can be, you’ll start finding them falling short. They take time to manually update, aren’t great for collaboration and aren’t connected as those features would be in project management software. ProjectManager is award-winning project management software for when you’re ready to upgrade and take your construction project management to the next level. Our software helps construction managers plan, manage and track their work in real time.
Control Risk in Construction Projects
Managing risk is part of a construction phase plan, but should also be included in your larger construction plan. Our risk management features allow you to create risk task cards to identify risks in a project and note their potential impacts and likelihood of happening. If they do show up, you have a plan to mitigate them and can track that progress in real time to ensure that the issue doesn’t fall through the cracks.
Manage Resources to Stay Productive
Being able to assign and track the work of your labor is one of the most important metrics that will help you keep your project running smoothly. Our resource management features let you set availability for the team, including PTO and vacation time, which makes assigning tasks quicker. Then you can check our color-coded workload chart to see if anyone on the team is overallocated. If they are, you can balance the team’s workload right from the workload chart to keep them working at capacity and productive.
Our software also has task management tools to manage your work and automated workflows with task approvals to free teams to focus on the more important tasks. Secure timesheets streamline payroll but also provide transparency into how quickly your team is getting their tasks done.
ProjectManager is cloud-based project management software that connects teams whether they’re in the office, on the job site or anywhere in between. Share files, comment at the task level and more to foster better collaboration. Get started with ProjectManager today for free.
