Lift plan

A lift plan (or lift study) is the written plan for a non-trivial crane lift. It covers the load weight, the rigging, the ground bearing under the crane and its outriggers, the swept path, and an enforced exclusion zone, and it is integrated with the site SWMS before the lift proceeds.

The point of a lift plan is that a crane lift is a high-consequence, one-shot operation: get the weight, the radius, the ground, or the rigging wrong and the crane tips or the load drops. The plan works it out on paper first. A typical lift plan addresses:

• Load: weight (including rigging and any water/contents), centre of gravity, lift points.
• Crane and chart: the crane’s rated capacity at the working radius (capacity drops fast as the radius increases), with a safety margin.
• Ground: bearing capacity under the outriggers, pads/mats sized for it, proximity to excavations, basements and services.
• Path and people: the swept path of the load, overhead powerlines, and an exclusion zone keeping people from under or near the load.
• Roles: the dogger/rigger and the operator, and communication when the load is out of sight.

For a builder the practical points are that a lift plan is required for anything beyond a routine pick, and that the two things most often underdone are ground bearing (an outrigger punching through soft fill or over a basement is a classic incident) and the capacity-at-radius check (the crane that lifts it close cannot always lift it out at reach). Get the crane company’s lift plan, confirm the ground, set and police the exclusion zone, and fold it into the SWMS before the lift, not after.

Also known as: Lift study, crane lift plan.

Category: WHS / Cranes and lifting.

Related

• Crane / Hiab operator
• Exclusion zone

See also

• Rigging
• Outrigger

References

• Safe Work Australia: cranes (verified 2026-06-03)

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Last updated: 2026-06-03. Verified: 2026-06-03. Quarterly review for currency.