What do civil works include on a school or council project?

Civil works are everything on a project that happens in the ground or on the surfaces around a building. On a school or council site, that means earthworks, asphalt and concrete pavements, drainage, kerbs and the driveways that join the site to the street.

Plenty of school projects are civil works and nothing else. An asphalt resurfacing job or a new drop-off zone has no building in it at all, but it still needs careful planning, because the students are on the other side of the fence.

The scope

Monument's civil capability takes in asphalt, concrete, drainage, kerbing, heritage stone and site civil. On a school or council project, that usually means:

• earthworks to set the levels
• asphalt and concrete for playgrounds, paths, courts and driveways
• stormwater pits, pipes and subsoil drainage
• kerb and gutter, inside the site and at the street
• the crossing that joins a new driveway to the council road
• repairs to heritage stone walls, steps and structures

Pavements

Asphalt and concrete do different jobs, and many school grounds use both. Asphalt covers a large play area quickly, while concrete holds an exact shape for courts, steps and edges. The trade-offs are set out in whether a school playground should be asphalt or concrete.

Monument's asphalt work includes resurfacing the playground at Athelstane Public School in Arncliffe during term. A resurfacing job often brings drainage, sub-base replacement, line marking and equipment work with it.

Drainage

Water is behind most pavement failures. A pavement with poor falls holds puddles, and water that gets underneath softens the base until the surface cracks.

The levels, pits and pipes are designed before anything is laid, then checked on site before the surface goes down. The method on an open site is covered in stormwater and drainage on live sites.

The street

Past the property boundary is the road reserve, and on a local road the council is the roads authority. A new driveway or kerb crossing needs the council's approval before anyone digs, as explained in what a road opening permit is.

At Yates Avenue Public School in Dundas Valley, Monument built a new accessible drop-off zone and driveway, with new security fencing and gates, and obtained the council approvals on the client's behalf. At Edgeware School in Hurlstone Park, it built a new emergency vehicle driveway as part of whole-of-school landscaping and civil works.

Heritage stone

Older public sites often have stone walls, steps or bridges, and a repair has to match the original stone and the way it was laid. What heritage stone repair involves covers the approach.

Civil work inside a bigger job

Civil works also sit inside most building projects. A new amenity or clubhouse building starts with earthworks, and larger multi-use sports courts take in civil, hydraulic and landscaping works as well as the court.

Machinery near students

Civil work brings excavators, rollers and trucks onto a site that people are still using. On a school, Monument secures the work area with fencing and keeps full-time supervision spotting every machinery movement, so the work carries on safely around students.

Our capability