Management of Construction Projects
Design Checklist – Mechanical Lifting
Scheme:
Completed by (Designer)
Approved by (Project Manager)
Agreed by (Workplace Manager)
Plant for consideration:
Date:
Date:
Date:
Mechanical Lifting
The designer/specifier should complete this checklist. A copy should be included as part of the H&S file / information at handover
Lift type
Portable – New
Portable – Existing
Flowchart – “Process for the selection of mechanical lifting equipment and hoists” must be
used on each occasion, to determine type of lifting arrangement (none, portable, fixed,
contract lift) and to determine whether hoists should be manually or electrically powered
Fixed
Contract Lift
Power source
Manually operated
Motor driven
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Page 1 of 10
Management of Construction Projects
Design Checklist – Mechanical Lifting
Design
Consideration
Requirement
Meets
requirement?
Load can be lifted
vertically?
To enable a vertical lift of the load(s). Think about for
instance, pump body, gearbox and motor assembly which are
part of one unit but may have to be lifted separately.
Yes/No
Not Applicable
Has load sufficient
head room to clear
other equipment?
(consider load cells
and hand railing
etc)
Can the load be
set down in safe
accessible place or
transferred safely
off site?
Can the load be lifted and moved without obstruction to a
safe accessible location. Consider horizontal and vertical
movements and swinging arc
Yes/No
Not Applicable
To enable the load to be set down in a safe accessible place
so it can be worked on, or taken to another location. One
example of this might be the use of a cantilever beam
arrangement.
Yes/No
Not Applicable
Comments
Revision: 4.0, April 2015
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Page 2 of 10
Management of Construction Projects
Design Checklist – Mechanical Lifting
Design
Consideration
Requirement
Meets
requirement
Are linked multiple
lifting systems
required?
Where multiple lifting systems are used, these should be
designed to avoid the need for manual handling during
transfers between lifts.
Yes/No
Not Applicable
Will the equipment
be designed and
built to relevant
British Standards?
Lifting equipment designed (e.g. a runway beam) must be
done so in accordance with the relevant British Standards.
Yes/No
Not Applicable
Are design
calculations
available?
Comments
BS 2573 part 1 1982
BS 5950 (Current version)
BS 2853 (Current version)
Calculations should be clearly documented. Lifting equipment
(and not cranes see below) should be designed and
manufactured with a minimum factor of safety of 4:1 built in.
(Man riding lifting equipment 10:1)
Yes/No
Not Applicable
Cranes should be designed to BS 2573 part 1 1982 affording
0.9 factor on permissible stress.
Confirmation of this should be sought from suppliers before
purchase.
In all instances Anglian Waters competent person
should be involved in the design stages at the earliest
opportunity in order to verify design calculations.
Revision: 4.0, April 2015
This document was printed on 31-Jul-17. May be uncontrolled if printed.
Page 3 of 10
Management of Construction Projects
Design Checklist – Mechanical Lifting
Design
Consideration
Requirement
Meets
requirement
CE marked?
All purchased / off the shelf lifting equipment must be CE
marked.
Yes/No
Not Applicable
Are there safe
means of attaching
accessories?
There should be a safe means of attaching lifting hoists and
lifting accessories to lifting beams, davits etc. (need to
consider height and weight of equipment to be manually
lifted). Where accessories cannot be attached from ground
level then consideration shall be given to the addition of a
suitable platform.
Where beam trolleys are expected to remain on the same
beam for the life of the lifting equipment they shall have a
locking mechanism fitted i.e. locking nut and shall not be of
the adjustable type.
Irrelevant of trolley type the beam should have suitable
means of preventing the trolley running off the end of the
beam.
Yes/No
Not Applicable
Have suitable end
stops been added
to the design?
Are “breakout” or
snagging forces
expected? If yes,
then either:
Where the presence of snagging and/or breakout forces has
been identified ALL lifting equipment (including chains) with a
SWL of at least 2 x the load to be lifted shall be provided.
Or equipment should be designed with an automatic cut out,
a slipping clutch or a load cell to be used appropriate to the
design.
Comments
Yes/No
Not Applicable
Yes/No
Not Applicable
Yes/No
Not Applicable
Revision: 4.0, April 2015
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Page 4 of 10
Management of Construction Projects
Design Checklist – Mechanical Lifting
Design
Consideration
Will the equipment
be lifting
submersible
pumps? If yes:
Is a lifting Hook
Locating System
fitted?
Are stainless steel
chains to be used?
For contracted lifts
a detailed lift plan
shall be provided
Requirement
Where practicable, submersible pumping
stations should be fitted with the Lifting Hook
Locating System for lifting pumps (see
Anglian Water Management of Mechanical
Lifting document).
Where the Lifting Hook (and lifting sling)
Locating System cannot be used then
certificated stainless steel grade 316L chains
shall be used for pump lifting. (see
Management of Mechanical Lifting)
Meets
requirement
Comments
Yes/No
Not Applicable
Yes/No
Not Applicable
Where chains with welded links are used /
fitted they must be of short link type. The
use of long link chain is not permitted on
Anglian Water sites
Yes/No
Not Applicable
A detailed lift plan needs to be produced and
provided by an appointed person copies to be
given to the workplace manager.
Yes/No
Not Applicable
Revision: 4.0, April 2015
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Page 5 of 10
Management of Construction Projects
Design Checklist – Mechanical Lifting
Design
Consideration
Will lifting
equipment be
inspected and
tagged before first
use?
Will equipment be
marked with SWL
and identified by a
unique identifier?
Lifting Certification
for all items of
lifting equipment?
Permanent
suspension of load
shall be avoided?
Requirement
All new or modified lifting equipment must be inspected by
Anglian Water nominated competent person and Scaff tagged
before first use. (Scafftag is a propriety system for the
marking and labelling of equipment). Fixed equipment must
be tested & certified in situ. In addition to the standard lifting
test tag the equipment should also be fitted with a Man riding
Scafftag.
All lifting equipment shall be visibly and indelibly marked with
its safe working loads (SWL) and a unique identification
number.
An EC Declaration of Conformity or a Load Test Certificate
must be supplied with each item of lifting equipment. This
shall include lifting eyes attached to equipment for the
purpose of locating e.g. MCC panels and cabinets and kiosks.
All certificates must be passed to the client/site owner prior
to handover.
The permanent suspension of loads from lifting equipment
should be avoided wherever possible. Where loads need to
be suspended then lifting equipment will need to be
specifically designed for this purpose.
Meets
requirement
Comments
Yes/No
Not Applicable
Yes/No
Not Applicable
Yes/No
Not Applicable
Yes/No
Not Applicable
The designer should complete this checklist. A copy should be included as part of the H&S file / information at handover
Reminder: Lifting certification must be handed to the site/asset owner prior to handover.
Checklist
completed by
Insert name
Date checklist
completed
Insert date
Revision: 4.0, April 2015
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Page 6 of 10
Management of Construction Projects
Design Checklist – Mechanical Lifting
Flowchart 1 – Process for the selection of mechanical lifting equipment and hoists
Link to manual handling guidance document
When deciding w het her mechanical lif t ing is required
init ially ref er t o t he manual handling guidance
document on t he saf e and w ell w ebsit e. Consider t he
locat ion of t he it em t o be lif t ed and det ermine if it is
accept able t o manually lif t t he load.
No
Use safe manual lifting
techniques
No
Consider a contract lift and
carry out whole life cost
benefit analysis
Yes
Yes
AWS Port able Davit
Normal operat ion SWL 500kg /
M an-riding operat ion SWL 1016kg
The Davit socket s must be
designed t o conf orm w it h BS EN
795 Prot ect ion against Falls f rom
Height – Anchor Devices
Is suitable portable
equipment available?
Yes
No
Is weight greater than
500 Kg
No
If
breakout & snagging
forces are evident will
equivalent wt be
> 500 Kg
Is mechanical lifting
required?
Yes
No
In deciding t he likely f requency
of lif t s you must consider:
M anuf act urers servicing
guidelines, t he hist oric
inf ormat ion on t hat t ype of
equipment ; Operat ional
requirement and Local
operat ional condit ions and
const raint s
Will
load be lifted more
frequently than
monthly?
Will
load be lifted more
frequently than
annually?
Would
fixed equipment be the
preffered WLC
Option?
Yes
Yes
Consider w het her t he f ixed
lif t ing equipment can be
inst alled, operat ed, maint ained
and inspect ed in a saf e manner.
Ensure it em lif t ed can be locat ed
in a suit able saf e place.
No
Yes
Can the site
accommodate a fixed
lifting system?
Yes
Will local
planning allow for a fixed
system?
Yes
Use portable equipment
Use fixed lifting equipment
No
Is t he load part of a dut y
st andby arrangement ;
Is t here likely t o be
compliance risk w it hin 6
hours.
No
No
Consider the criticallity of the
load
Yes
Use a contract lift and
create a lift plan
Revision: 4.0, April 2015
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Page 7 of 10
Management of Construction Projects
Design Checklist – Mechanical Lifting
Flowchart 1 – Process for the selection of mechanical lifting equipment and hoists (continued)
Use portable equipment
Use fixed lifting equipment
Is load greater than
500kg
Yes
No
In deciding t he likely f requency of lif t s you
must consider:
M anuf act urers servicing guidelines, t he
hist oric inf ormat ion on t hat t ype of
equipment ; Operat ional requirement and
Local operat ional condit ions and
const raint s
Would a manual
operated lift take 15
minutes or longer?
Yes
No
Is the
frequency of lift likely to
be monthly
or less?
Yes
No
Use a manually operated
lifting hoist
Use a electrically powered
lifting hoist
Revision: 4.0, April 2015
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Page 8 of 10
Management of Construction Projects
Design Checklist – Mechanical Lifting
Appendix A
Breakout and snagging forces
Care should be taken when calculating the SWL for lifting equipment as additional forces, other than
the mass of the item for lifting, may be present e.g. negative and positive pressures, or friction.
These additional forces may result in the twice the normal lifting force being required to lift the item
from its normal footprint. Installing new equipment with a SWL that makes no allowance for this
extra loading may overload the lifting system and cause increased operating costs and difficulties
and as such is likely to prove false economy

The presence of these forces (commonly referred to as breakout or snagging forces) should
always be considered when providing new lifting equipment. Submersible pumps located in
the wet well of pumping stations are a good example of where these forces may exist.

Where the presence of snagging and/or breakout forces has been identified lifting equipment
with a SWL of at least 2 x the load to be lifted shall be provided.

Equipment should be designed with a slipping clutch or installation suitable for load cell use
during safe removal.

Newly purchased lifting equipment must be CE marked and should be manufactured to
include a built in safety factor of 4:1. Confirmation of this should be sought from the
supplier/manufacturer prior to purchase.

On Runway beams BS 2853 (current version) States: To allow for swinging loads, dynamic
effects due to slipping slings and the kinetic effects of acceleration and retardation the totals
maximum static wheel loads should be increased by the following percentages:
i) Runways for power-operated appliances
25%
ii) Runways for hand operated appliances
10%
1. Consideration to be given to access/egress arrangements to avoid manual handling of portable
lifting equipment and manhandling of equipment. Under these scenarios it may be necessary to
incorporate fixed lifting systems from the outset.
2. All fixed lifting equipment must be tested in situ and proof load tested by AW appointed
Competent Lifting Engineers and certificate issued.
Appendix B
The following examples are intended to demonstrate the effects that breakout and transient forces
may have on a mechanical lifting system – They should not be used as design guidance. In all
instances designs for mechanical lifting systems should be discussed in detail with the
Anglian water appointed person at the earliest opportunity to verify design calculations
Worked Examples - Example A
Static load
Breakout forces expected?
Suitable portable equipment available
350Kg
No
Yes
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Management of Construction Projects
Design Checklist – Mechanical Lifting
Is lift likely to take less than 15 minutes to complete?
Will the lift be required at a frequency of less than monthly
Yes
No
This lift can take place using portable equipment with a manually operated lifting hoist. Taking into
consideration that a load cell should be used, set to alarm at no greater than 90% of safe working
load of the weakest item in the lifting system the SWL of the equipment should be a minimum of
350 x (10/9) kg. – Transient forces encountered during lifting should also be considered.
Worked Examples - Example B
Static load
Breakout/snagging forces expected?
350Kg
Yes
Is the load including snagging breakout forces expected to be greater than 500kg
Is the lift likely to take place more frequently than yearly
Yes
Will the site accommodate a fixed lifting beam
Yes
Will the lift take more than 15 minutes to complete?
Yes
No
This lift can take place using fixed equipment with a manually operated lifting hoist. Due to
presence of additional breakout forces the SWL of the lifting equipment should be at least twice that
of the weight of the load, in this case study, 2 x 350kg = 700kg
Where a runway beam is used calculations should show an increase of 10% on the static load
therefore resulting in the following changes to Example B
350kg + 10% = 385kg
And taking additional breakout forces into consideration
SWL should be at least 2 x 385kg = 770kg
Worked Examples - Example C
Static load
Breakout/snagging forces expected?
350Kg
Yes
Is the load including snagging breakout forces expected to be greater than 500kgYes
Is the lift likely to take place more frequently than yearly
Yes
Will the site accommodate a fixed lifting beam
Yes
Will the lift take more than 15 minutes to complete?
Yes
This lift can take place using fixed equipment with an electrically powered lifting hoist … Due to
presence of additional breakout forces the SWL of the lifting equipment should be at least twice that
of the weight of the load, in this case study, 2 x 350kg = 700kg
Where a runway beam is used calculations should show an increase of 25% on the static load
therefore resulting in the following changes to Example C
350kg + 25% = 437.5kg
And taking additional breakout forces into consideration
SWL should be at least 2 x 437.5kg = 875kg
Revision: 4.0, April 2015
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