Construction Safety

Phase Hazard Analysis (PHA) Submittal

A Phase Hazard Analysis (PHA) (also known as Safe Work Plan) is required to be submitted and approved prior to the start of all construction projects that take place at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL). The PHA is a written, step-by-step description of how to complete a job safely and efficiently from start to finish, where each step of the job is examined for potential hazards and which provides the measures that will be taken to complete the job safely.

It is recommended that PHA development be a team effort, thus reducing the possibility of overlooking an individual job step or potential hazard. Involving as many knowledgeable and experienced people as possible will help to ensure an accurate and complete PHA. The team should include:

• the supervisor
• the worker most familiar with how the job is done and its related hazards
• other workers who perform the job
• experts, specialists and competent persons

Basic steps in developing PHA’s are:

• Breaking the job down into a sequence of basic steps (tasks)
• Identifying/selecting each task to be analyzed
• Identifying potential hazards in each task
• Determining Control Measures to mitigate these hazards

Some common problems resulting in incomplete Phase Hazard Analysis/Safe Work Plans:

• Correspondence not being sent to appropriate individual. Due to document control purposes, send all correspondence to the BNL Project Engineer/Manager prior to being sent to the BNL PHA review team.
• Not using the required Template that is provided for your use.
• PHA’s are far too generic in nature and should be site-specific and explicit. The BNL PHA review team should be able to understand the scope of the work, the operation at hand and the identified known hazards, even if they are not familiar with the specific task to be done.
• Scope of work not clearly identified. What are you doing and where are you doing it?
• PHA is not signed off by the author.
• Estimated start date for the project identified in the PHA not included.
• Failure to place the tasks in a logical sequence.
• The PHA does not show equipment and tools, if any, that will be used, or the safeguards/controls to mitigate the known hazards.
• What means of access and egress will be used and the hazards associated with them.
• Using someone else’s PHA, which has different hazards from your job.
• Does the PHA make sense to those reading it? Once completed, have the PHA read back to see that it is clearly written and complete.
• PHA not reviewed by the Contractor’s Safety Representative or Alternate before being submitted for acceptance.
• Lack of sign in sheet. A sign in sheet should be attached to the PHA for the workers involved in the operation to sign, reflecting having been trained in the Tasks, Hazards and Controls/Safeguards associated with the specific PHA/Safe Work Plan.

Examples of PHA’s can be found on the Phase Hazard Analysis (PHA) Index page. These documents are only meant to be a guide and should be tailored to meet the specific needs of the project.

Last Modified: November 1, 2010
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One of ten national laboratories overseen and primarily funded by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Brookhaven National Laboratory conducts research in the physical, biomedical, and environmental sciences, as well as in energy technologies and national security. Brookhaven Lab also builds and operates major scientific facilities available to university, industry and government researchers. Brookhaven is operated and managed for DOE's Office of Science by Brookhaven Science Associates, a limited-liability company founded by the Research Foundation for the State University of New York on behalf of Stony Brook University, the largest academic user of Laboratory facilities, and Battelle, a nonprofit, applied science and technology organization.

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