Preparing a site layout plan: what it must contain

This guide follows French practice: French standards (NF DTU), French regulations and French bill conventions. Most sources are in French.

What the site layout plan is for

The site layout plan is a scaled drawing, usually based on the site plan, that shows everything used to build without being part of the building: fencing, access, roads, welfare facilities, cranes, storage and delivery areas, skips, temporary services. It is used to check that everything fits on the site, to organise safety and the coordination of trades, to prepare permit applications (use of the public highway, crane oversailing) and to explain the site to newcomers.

Depending on the project, it is sketched at tender stage, then refined during the preparation period by the structural contractor or the main contractor. On a French project subject to health and safety coordination (SPS), the general coordination plan (PGC) written by the coordinator sets out measures that the site layout plan puts on the drawing.

What the French Labour Code says

No text fixes the content of a site layout plan, but it reflects very real obligations. Article R4532-44 of the French Labour Code lists the content of the PGC, and most of its points can be drawn: horizontal and vertical traffic routes and areas; handling conditions, in particular interference between lifting equipment; the boundaries and layout of storage areas; storage and removal of waste and rubble; collective protection, temporary access and the general electrical installation; hygiene measures and premises for the workforce; organisation of first aid and evacuation.

Welfare facilities are also subject to minimum figures. For example, the Code requires one washbasin for at most ten workers (article R4228-7), and the same ratio, one tap for ten, on sites lasting four months or less (articles R4534-137 and R4534-141). Check the other requirements (changing rooms, toilets, canteen) on Légifrance when sizing the welfare facilities.

What a site layout plan must show

The site and its surroundings

• Site boundaries, site footprint, the proposed building and existing buildings.
• Public roads, pavements, bus stops; sensitive neighbours: school, healthcare building, railway, power line.
• North, the scale and a legend.

Fencing and access

• The fence around the whole perimeter, with its type and its gates.
• Separate vehicle and pedestrian accesses, the direction of traffic, room for lorries to manoeuvre.
• The planning permit board, visible from the public highway: rectangular, larger than 80 cm (article A424-15 of the French Planning Code).

Welfare facilities

• Offices, changing rooms, canteen, toilets: number of modules and layout.
• Near the entrance, outside the area oversailed by loads, connected to water, electricity and drainage.

Lifting

• Tower cranes: mast position, jib and counter-jib length, areas not to be oversailed.
• Interference between cranes, including those on neighbouring sites.
• Mobile cranes and telehandlers: set-up position and working radius for the planned lifts.

Deliveries and waste

• Delivery and storage areas, within crane reach.
• Waste sorting skips, accessible to lorries.
• Position of the concrete pump and mixer truck, if the pours require it.

Services and emergencies

• Site electrical box, water points.
• Assembly point, emergency access, fire-fighting equipment.

Preparing the site layout plan, step by step

1. Start from the scaled site plan, with the site boundaries and the roads.
2. Place the proposed building and identify the constraints: neighbours, existing services, trees to protect.
3. Choose the crane positions, checking oversailing and interference.
4. Draw the fence, the gates and the traffic routes, pedestrians and vehicles kept apart.
5. Set out the welfare facilities, storage, skips and delivery areas.
6. Add temporary services, signage, the legend, North and the scale.
7. Produce one version per phase, then check it against the PGC and the programme.

Cranes: oversailing and interference

The crane shapes the site layout plan. Its position is chosen to cover the work and storage areas, but also to limit what it oversails beyond the site. Two checks are made on plan:

• Oversailing. Everything inside the jib circle can be oversailed by a load. A school, a public road or a neighbouring property inside that circle calls for another position, a shorter jib, a zoning system that limits the area swept, or an oversailing licence.
• Interference. Two cranes interfere as soon as the distance between their masts is less than the sum of their radii. They must then be set at different heights and the shared area managed.

The French INRS publishes a brochure on this subject, « Grues à tour – Gestion des zones d'interférence et des zones interdites sur les chantiers » (ED 6255): it is the reference reading before fixing the layout.

Worked example

A 60 × 40 m site, fenced all round, with two 6.00 m gates. Two tower cranes are planned: crane A with a 40 m jib and crane B with a 30 m jib, masts 55 m apart. A school stands 32 m from crane A's mast. Peak workforce: 25 people.

Conclusion: crane A oversails the school over an 8 m strip. It must be moved back by at least 8 m (plus a margin), its jib brought under 32 m, or its working area limited. The two cranes interfere over 15 m: their heights and the management of this area are settled before erection, not on site.

One site layout plan per phase

The set-up is not the same during earthworks, structure and finishes: the crane arrives then leaves, storage areas move, welfare facilities grow or shrink. One plan per phase avoids a single unreadable drawing. Keep the same background, the same scale and the same legend from one phase to the next: only the installations change.

The most common mistakes

• A plan not to scale: site cabins too small, crane radii approximate.
• Welfare facilities placed under the crane jib.
• A single access for pedestrians and lorries.
• Lorry turning circles never checked, a mixer truck or pump with no room.
• A legend without quantities: how many metres of fence, how many modules to hire?
• A fixed plan while the site changes at every phase.

Doing it in Kotelys

• The site layout plan is drawn on the PDF site plan, to scale, in the same project as the take-offs.
• The Installations menu places site cabins (office, toilets… and their number of modules), chemical toilets, tower cranes, lifting equipment (telehandlers, mobile cranes, or a custom machine with free dimensions), skips, fences, gates (which cut the fence by their width), protected trees, traffic arrows, turning circles and no-oversail zones.
• Crane alerts hatch on the drawing the overlap between two cranes and the oversailing of a no-go zone. Plan view only: heights are not compared.
• Signage adds the site board, the entrance and exit, the speed limit, the assembly point, the electrical box, the water point, the site access and the parking spaces.
• The legend is placed automatically, with the quantities (metres of fence, site cabin modules…); the north arrow and the scale bar are placed in one click.
• Vehicles (tipper lorry, concrete mixer truck, articulated lorry…) and plant (excavator, mini excavator, forklift, aerial work platform) are placed at their real size and turned with the mouse.
• Your usual welfare set-up, saved as an installation template, is placed again on the next site.

Kotelys draws and checks on plan; it replaces neither the lifting plan, nor the PGC, nor the permits.

Further reading: the site layout plan in Kotelys, and the other guides.

Sources

1. French Labour Code, article R4532-44 (content of the general coordination plan)
2. French Labour Code, article R4228-7 (washbasins)
3. French Labour Code, article R4534-137 (sites of four months or less)
4. French Labour Code, article R4534-141 (drinking water and washbasins on sites)
5. French National Assembly, written question no. 1439 and the ministry's answer (permit board, article A424-15)
6. INRS, ED 6255 « Grues à tour – Gestion des zones d'interférence et des zones interdites sur les chantiers »
7. Cramif, « Préparation et installation de chantier » (clients' club)
8. Leviat, data sheet « Clôtures de chantier » (3.50 × 2.00 m panels)

Thresholds and values described as “taken for the example” are not rules: those of your contract (specification, bill of quantities) always prevail.