On 3 October 2024 Indonesia's meteorology, climatology and geophysics agency released its forecast for the 2024/2025 rainy season. The onset moves from western Sumatra, which entered the wet season in August 2024, eastward until December 2024, and most of the country is expected to enter the rainy season in October and November 2024. Compared with the average, this season arrives early, is expected to peak in November and December 2024 in western Indonesia and in January and February 2025 in the east, and will last longer than usual in most areas. The agency also noted a possible La Nina in late 2024 (Badan Meteorologi, Klimatologi, dan Geofisika [BMKG], 2024).
For construction projects this means several months in which heavy rain, strong wind, lightning and saturated ground will interrupt outdoor work more often. The question on site is always the same: when must work stop, and who decides? This article explains one method for answering it, weather-based stop-work criteria, with the steps, a worked example and the limits.
What the Rules Say
Minister of Manpower Regulation No. 9 of 2016 on work at height requires employers to ensure that work at height is carried out only when the working situation and conditions do not endanger workers or others (Article 4(2)), and to carry out a risk assessment of that work (Article 5(1)) (Kementerian Ketenagakerjaan [Kemnaker], 2016).
Minister of Public Works and Housing Regulation No. 10 of 2021 on the construction safety management system (SMKK) covers three relevant points. The construction safety plan (RKK) must be adjusted to changes in scope and conditions during execution, with the client approving the change (Article 25). A construction safety analysis (AKK) must be applied to high and medium risk work and to special work, including lifting, work above 1.80 metres, scaffolding, energised electrical work, night work and excavation, and must be reviewed when the work method, situation, safeguards or people change (Article 26). The AKK is also part of the permit-to-work requirements (Article 27) (Kementerian Pekerjaan Umum dan Perumahan Rakyat [Kementerian PUPR], 2021).
The revised 2022 ILO code of practice on safety and health in construction is more explicit. When adverse weather such as storms, heavy rain, high winds or reduced visibility increases the risk of accidents, steel erection should stop until the risk has reduced. Workers should not be employed on external scaffolds in weather that threatens their safety, and scaffolds should be inspected by a competent person after exposure to weather. Mobile elevated work platforms should not be operated in winds above the supplier's limit, tower cranes should have a wind speed indicator in the cab, and crane foundations should allow for seasonal changes in ground conditions (International Labour Organization [ILO], 2022).
The Gap to Fill
All three sources agree that work stops when the weather makes it dangerous, yet none sets a number that applies to every project. It could not: a crane's wind limit depends on boom configuration and load, and a scaffold's limit depends on its design and sheeting. In our view this gap is why the decision to stop is so often made on the spot by a foreman or operator who is also chasing the day's target. Criteria agreed before the wet season move that decision from individual nerve to a project rule that everyone has signed up to.
Setting the Criteria
- List the weather-sensitive activities from the existing AKK, especially lifting, work at height, scaffolding, excavation, temporary electrical installations and concrete pours (Kementerian PUPR, 2021).
- Set a trigger for each: wind from the manufacturer's limits for cranes and platforms, heavy rain or visibility that disrupts communication between operator and signaller, lightning near the site, and ponding or seepage in excavations (ILO, 2022).
- Name the data sources: the crane's wind indicator, BMKG forecasts and early warnings for the project area, and the supervisor's own observation (BMKG, 2024; ILO, 2022).
- Write down the authority: who stops the work, who restarts it, and how the decision is recorded on the permit to work (Kementerian PUPR, 2021).
- Define the checks before restart, for example scaffolds, crane bearing ground, excavation walls and wet electrical panels (ILO, 2022).
- Review the AKK and RKK whenever a trigger is reached or site conditions change, and obtain the client's approval (Kementerian PUPR, 2021).
Worked Example
As an illustration we take the lifting of flyover girders with a mobile crane. The wind trigger is taken from the crane manual's table for the configuration in use, and the team sets an alert level below that limit so there is time to land the load. The rain trigger is written as heavy rain that obstructs the line of sight between operator and signaller. When either trigger is reached, lifts not yet started are postponed, any suspended load is landed and secured, and the area under the lifting path is cleared. Work restarts once the trigger has cleared and the supervisor has checked the ground under the outriggers, because saturated ground can lose bearing capacity (ILO, 2022).
Limits of the Method
The criteria do not replace judgement on site. BMKG forecasts are regional, and a local storm can arrive faster than any warning. Manufacturer limits apply only to a given configuration, so a change of equipment or method means updating the criteria. We have not found national data that separates weather-related construction accidents, so the value of the method is best judged from the project's own records. And the criteria work only if management does not penalise a stop made in line with them.
How Nusa Safety Helps
Nusa Safety can help project teams build the AKK and stop-work criteria through its Risk Assessment and JSA Workshop, and turn them into written procedures and permit forms through its SOP and technical guideline development service.
This article is general information and not legal or professional advice for any specific case.
References
- Badan Meteorologi, Klimatologi, dan Geofisika. (2024, October 3). Prediksi musim hujan 2024/2025 di Indonesia [Rainy season forecast 2024/2025 for Indonesia]. BMKG. https://www.bmkg.go.id/iklim/prediksi-musim/prakiraan-musim-hujan-2024-2025-di-indonesia
- International Labour Organization. (2022). Safety and health in construction: ILO code of practice (Rev. ed.). ILO. https://www.ilo.org/resource/other/safety-and-health-construction-revised-edition
- Kementerian Ketenagakerjaan Republik Indonesia. (2016). Peraturan Menteri Ketenagakerjaan Nomor 9 Tahun 2016 tentang Keselamatan dan Kesehatan Kerja dalam Pekerjaan pada Ketinggian [Minister of Manpower Regulation No. 9 of 2016 on occupational safety and health in work at height]. https://peraturan.bpk.go.id/Details/146109/permenaker-no-9-tahun-2016
- Kementerian Pekerjaan Umum dan Perumahan Rakyat. (2021). Peraturan Menteri Pekerjaan Umum dan Perumahan Rakyat Nomor 10 Tahun 2021 tentang Pedoman Sistem Manajemen Keselamatan Konstruksi [Minister of Public Works and Housing Regulation No. 10 of 2021 on construction safety management system guidelines]. https://pasal.id/peraturan/permen/permen-pupr-no-10-tahun-2021
