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Construction Safety Job Hazard Analysis (JHA) Submittal

A Job Hazard Analysis (JHA) (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 JHA 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 JHA 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 JHA. 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 JHA'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
  • Review user manuals and cut sheets for any equipment, and address hazards and warnings (submit with your JHA for BNL review)

Some common problems resulting in incomplete JHA/SWP:

  • 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 JHA review team.
  • Safety requirements detailed on the equipment user manual and cut sheets have not been adequately addressed in the JHA.
  • Not using the required Template (.doc) that is provided for your use.
  • JHA's are far too generic in nature and should be site-specific and explicit. The BNL JHA 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?
  • JHA is not signed off by the author.
  • Estimated start date for the project identified in the JHA not included.
  • Failure to place the tasks in a logical sequence.
  • The JHA 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 JHA, which has different hazards from your job.
  • Does the JHA make sense to those reading it? Once completed, have the JHA read back to see that it is clearly written and complete.
  • JHA 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 JHA for the workers involved in the operation to sign, reflecting having been trained in the Tasks, Hazards and Controls/Safeguards associated with the specific JHA/Safe Work Plan.

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

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