What are works as executed plans and when are they required?

Design plans show what was intended. Works as executed plans show what is there.

The difference matters most for anything buried, because once a pipe is covered the only record of where it is and what level it sits at is the survey taken before the backfill went in.

What they record

**Drainage,** which is the main one. Pipe positions, sizes, materials, invert levels at each pit, pit locations and surface levels. Councils require this before they will accept a drainage asset into their network.

**Services,** including the position and depth of water, sewer, electrical, communications and gas, both new and any existing located during the work. This is the record that prevents the next contractor hitting them, and it feeds the problem described in [service location and utility relocations](/answers/service-location-and-utility-relocations).

**Levels,** including finished surface levels, pavement levels, floor levels and the levels of any structure.

**Structures,** with their actual position relative to boundaries, which matters where a setback or an easement is involved.

**Easements and encroachments,** confirmed rather than assumed.

Why they have to be surveyed, not drawn

A works as executed plan produced by amending the design drawing is not a works as executed plan.

Construction involves tolerance, adjustment and latent conditions. A pipe deviated around an unexpected obstruction, a pit relocated by a metre, an invert adjusted to achieve a fall. Each of those is normal and each makes the design drawing wrong.

So the record comes from a registered surveyor measuring what is there, and it is signed. That signature is what the authority accepts.

The timing is the part that gets missed

Anything buried has to be surveyed before it is covered.

Which means the survey is a hold point in the programme, not an activity at the end of the project. A drainage line backfilled before it was picked up has to be exposed again, and that is excavation on a finished surface.

So the inspection and test plan includes the survey as a hold point for each buried element, in the same way as the other hold points described in [quality assurance, ITPs and hold points](/answers/quality-assurance-itps-and-hold-points).

On a staged project, that means several surveys rather than one, with each stage picked up as it closes. The staging logic is the same as in [stormwater and drainage on live sites](/answers/stormwater-and-drainage-on-live-sites).

Who requires them

**Council,** for any drainage or civil work connecting to or becoming part of their asset, and as a condition of the development consent. Typically required before an occupation certificate or before the defects period starts.

**Water and sewer authorities,** for any connection or adjustment to their infrastructure.

**The asset owner,** whether that is a department, a council or an institution, as part of their asset records.

**The certifier,** where a condition of consent requires it.

Which means the requirement is identified at the approvals stage rather than discovered at handover, and it sits alongside the permits in [how does Monument handle council approvals and road opening permits](/answers/how-does-monument-handle-council-approvals-and-road-opening-permits).

What they are used for afterwards

The plans outlive the project, and three groups rely on them.

**The next contractor,** who needs to know what is underground before they excavate. A site with accurate works as executed plans is a site where the next project does not generate a latent condition, which is the risk described in [latent conditions and unforeseen site issues](/answers/latent-conditions-and-unforeseen-site-issues).

**Maintenance staff,** who need to find a pit, a valve or an isolation point.

**The asset owner's records,** for future planning and for establishing what exists.

Which is why the plans are issued in a usable format rather than as a scanned image, and why they go into the package described in [handover documentation and operation manuals](/answers/handover-documentation-and-operation-manuals).

Their part in completion

On most contracts, works as executed plans are a deliverable required for practical completion, which means the project is not complete until they are issued and accepted.

A project that is physically finished and waiting on survey documentation is a project holding up its own completion and its final claim, which is why the survey is programmed as work rather than treated as paperwork. The milestone itself is described in [commissioning and practical completion](/answers/commissioning-and-practical-completion).