Z36 Formwork Handbook

The motivation for creating this Handbook comes from a strong belief that the health and safety of construction workers should not be put at greater risk from structural failure than other workers. Unfortunately, in Australia and elsewhere, this is not the case.

In practice, the frequency of structural failure and the general risk of death is much higher during construction than, later, during the service life of the completed permanent structure. In the past, a higher frequency of structural failure may have been tolerated because of an underlying tacit attitude in the design and construction industry that temporary structures, such as formwork, are less important than permanent structures and therefore greater risks are acceptable. However, this is no longer the case.