All provinces and territories · Editable Word template

Pipeline construction safety manual template

A complete written health and safety program for pipeline construction contractors building oil, gas and water transmission and gathering lines, tie-ins, facility and integrity digs, directional drilling and boring, maintenance and repair, testing and commissioning, wherever in Canada the right of way is. It is laid out on the 14 national COR elements and written for the work: ground disturbance and crossing existing lines, excavations and bell holes, sideboom lifts and lowering-in, stringing and bending pipe, welding and cutting, coatings and blasting, radiography exclusion zones, hydrostatic and pneumatic testing, directional drilling, tie-ins and H2S, power lines on the right of way, mobile equipment, water crossings, camps, journey management and remote evacuation. Section 15 sets out the law of every province and territory, and federal pipelines under the Canada Energy Regulator, side by side, with each jurisdiction’s pipeline regulator, crossing and locate rules, hot work, H2S and pressure testing rules. It arrives as an editable Word file you make your own.

A look inside

Sample pages from the manual, marked and cut short. Your copy has no watermark.

Cover with room for your logo and company name

Linked table of contents, laid out on the 14 national COR elements plus a section on working across Canada

Section 3: twenty safe work practices written for pipeline crews, ground disturbance and crossings shown

Section 15: each jurisdiction's pipeline regulator, locate and ground disturbance rules, hot work, H2S and pressure testing

Appendix A: all 74 documentation questions of the national COR elements mapped

Print-ready plans and forms: the pressure test plan and exclusion zone record shown

What’s in the manual

1. Safety and health policy

A signed, dated policy, the written program, and responsibilities for management, spread and crew foremen, welders and helpers, pipe handlers, sideboom and excavator operators, coating crews, NDT technicians and drillers, and how we work under the pipeline owner’s rules.

2. Hazard assessment, analysis and control

Formal hazard assessments by activity on the spread, the 5 × 5 risk matrix, a critical task inventory, and the right-of-way and task hazard assessment.

3. Safe work practices

Twenty practices for the right of way: the owner’s rules, ground disturbance and crossings, bell holes, sidebooms, stringing and bending, welding, coatings, radiography, pressure testing, directional drilling, tie-ins and H2S, power lines, equipment, ROW roads, water crossings, hot work, camps and wildlife, journey management, weather and fatigue.

4. Safe job procedures

Step-by-step procedures for exposing and crossing an existing line, lowering in with sidebooms, welding a tie-in in a bell hole, a radiography exclusion zone, a hydrostatic test, setting up and pulling back on a directional drill, a line strike or release, and evacuating an injured worker from a remote right of way.

5. Company safety rules

Life-saving rules for pipeline work (owner consent and hand exposure before any crossing, nobody in the swing zone, stay out of the radiography and test zones, verified zero before a test head comes off), and a progressive discipline process applied the same way every time.

6. Personal protective equipment

Welding PPE, flame-resistant clothing, H2S monitors and respiratory protection, hearing protection, and the rest of the basic PPE.

7. Preventative maintenance program

Sidebooms and their load charts, excavators, welding rigs, test equipment and heads, directional drills, gas detectors and vehicles.

8. Training and communication

Ground disturbance, H2S, sideboom operators and signallers, welders, pressure testing, and orientation on every spread.

9. Inspections

Right-of-way inspections, crossings checked before digging, sideboom and rigging checks, and test and drill set-ups inspected.

10. Investigations and reporting

Line strikes, releases, sideboom incidents, test failures and near misses reported and investigated, to the OHS regulator and to the pipeline regulator where it requires it.

11. Emergency preparedness

A line strike or release, a gas exposure, a sideboom tip, a test failure, a fire, and evacuating an injured worker from a remote right of way.

12. Statistics, records and document control

Crossing agreements, locates, lift plans, test plans, hot work permits and drill set-ups, kept for the longest period any jurisdiction requires.

13. Legislation

OHS law, the Canada Energy Regulator and each province’s energy regulator, the CSA pipeline and welding standards, radiography licensing, and the right to refuse.

14. Procurement and contractor management

Working for pipeline owners, NDT, hydrovac and drilling subcontractors, camps, and buying equipment and test gear.

15. Working across Canada

Whose law applies, including federal pipelines under the Canada Energy Regulator, then every province and territory side by side: the act and regulation, the regulator, the pipeline regulator, ground disturbance and crossings, the locate service, hot work, H2S, pressure testing, and serious incidents to report and how fast.

Appendix A. COR cross-reference

Every one of the 74 documentation questions in the 14 national COR elements, what it looks for in plain words, the section that answers it, and whether the auditor will also want your records.

Appendix B. Forms

37 print-ready forms that match the manual, each with a form code: among them the right-of-way and task hazard assessment, ground disturbance and crossing checklist, sideboom lift plan, pressure test plan and exclusion zone record, hot work permit and directional drill set-up checklist.

Written for the work, not just the province

Pipeline crews are hurt by a strike on an existing line, a sideboom that tips with pipe on the hook, a test head that lets go, and an injury hours from a hospital. This manual is written around them, practice by practice and procedure by procedure.

A federal pipeline answers to the Canada Energy Regulator as well as labour law, and a provincial one to the province’s energy regulator. Section 15 says which, and where to report.

One program for every province you work in

Your crews follow the occupational health and safety law of the province or territory where the right of way is, not where your office is. The manual sets your company’s rules once and gathers what changes at each border into section 15, so a supervisor starting work in a new province looks up what applies there.

It is laid out on the 14 national COR elements, so it suits a COR audit wherever you certify. Each certifying partner uses its own audit tool, so check it against yours; our provincial manuals follow each province’s audit exactly. No template can guarantee a certificate on its own, and we don’t claim to.

Who it is for

Pipeline construction contractors: mainline spreads, gathering lines, tie-ins, facility and integrity digs, directional drilling and boring, maintenance and repair, testing and commissioning. Oilfield services and hydrovac excavation have their own manuals.

A template is a starting point, not legal or engineering advice: a qualified person must adapt it to your work and the provinces you work in before you issue it.

Lifetime updates

When the law changes, we publish a new edition and email everyone who bought the template. Every update is free, for as long as we publish it.

Version 1.0 October 29, 2026
- First edition, written for pipeline construction contractors and laid out on the 14 national elements of the harmonized COR audit.
- Section 15 sets out the law, the pipeline regulators and the crossing, locate, hot work, H2S and pressure testing rules of every province and territory and federal workplaces, checked against the legislation in force on 29 October 2026.