Safe use of concrete-placing equipment

Background

There have been several safety incidents involving concrete placing equipment (particularly truck-mounted concrete boom pumps and placing booms), in recent years, including an increase in rollover events.

In July 2026, an employee was seriously injured when a truck-mounted concrete placing boom overturned, causing the boom to strike the employee.

Safety issues

Common safety issues with truck-mounted concrete-placing booms that can put employees at serious risk of injury or death, include:

• Setting up near excavations, trenches, holes, cellars, basements, pits, or backfilled ground can create a risk of ground instability and collapse.
• ‘Short blocking’ outriggers, not fully extending the outrigger and locking it into position can create instability and increase the risk of a rollover.
• Undersized packing with insufficient strength or load-bearing area, resulting in outriggers sinking into the ground
• Selecting inadequately sized equipment can increase the risk of truck-mounted concrete booms being placed in unsafe areas, like uneven or unstable surfaces.

Recommended ways to control the risk

To eliminate or reduce the risk of injury from rollovers when operating truck-mounted concrete-placing booms, you need to:

• Choose the safest location for the concrete placing equipment and the size of the equipment to ensure it can safely reach the work area.
• Ensure the concrete-placing equipment is set up on reasonably level ground that has adequate surface-bearing capacity to support the fully loaded working pump and any delivery trucks.
• Unless approved by a suitably competent person, such as a geotechnical or structural engineer, avoid setting up the concrete-placing equipment near:
  • excavations, trenches or holes.
  • cellars, basements, pits or back-filled ground
• Have a suitably competent person select and install appropriately sized packing, bog mats or road plates. These should be calculated in accordance with the concrete pump’s safe use information.
• Ensure outriggers are extended (swung out if applicable), lowered and locked in position before the boom is erected.
• Avoid short-blocking wherever practicable, as there is an increased risk of overturning.
• Ensure the manufacturer's specified maximum drop hose length relative to the boom length is not exceeded, as this can reduce stability and increase the risk of overturning.

Legal duties

As an employer or self-employed person, you have legal duties under the following health and safety laws:

• Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004 (OHS Act)
• Occupational Health and Safety Regulations 2017 (OHS Regulations).

Employers must

• Provide and maintain plant or systems of work that are safe and without risks to health, so far as is reasonably practicable.
• Provide the necessary information, instruction, training or supervision so employees can work in a way that is safe and without risk to health. For example, ensuring operators and employees are suitably trained and competent for the type and model of concrete-placing equipment they are using.
• Not allow an employee to perform high-risk work, such as operate concrete-placing booms, unless the employee holds the appropriate high-risk work licence for the work.

Note: Regulation 132(1) provides an exemption for a 'trainee' to perform high risk work under certain circumstances.

Employers and self-employed people must:

• Ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that other persons are not exposed to risks to their health or safety arising from the conduct of the undertaking of the employer or self-employed person.
• Not perform high risk construction work where the work involves movement of powered mobile plant if there is a risk to the health and safety of any person arising from the work, unless:
  • a safe work method statement (SWMS) has been prepared before the work commences; and
  • the work is performed in accordance with that SWMS.