As soon as several companies are working on a construction site, the Construction Site Ordinance requires a safety and health coordinator. The responsibility for this initially lies with the client.
What is a SiGeKo?
On the basis of the Construction Site Ordinance (BaustellV), the safety and health coordinator (SiGeKo) coordinates occupational safety on construction sites where several employers are active. The aim is to avoid hazards that arise precisely from the interaction of different trades.
The SiGeKo does not replace the responsibility of the individual companies for their own employees. They ensure that the measures of the parties involved fit together and that no gaps or mutual hazards arise.
When it is required
Coordination is required as soon as employees of several employers work on one construction site. Depending on the scope and hazard, further duties are added:
- Advance notice to the competent authority for larger sites.
- Safety and health plan (SiGe plan) for particularly hazardous work.
- File for later work as a basis for maintenance and servicing.
The duty to appoint a SiGeKo falls on the client. They may delegate the task but remain responsible for the proper appointment.
Tasks in planning and execution
If the SiGeKo is brought in only late, many conflicts can be defused only at great cost. Coordination is most effective when it begins already in the planning.
Particularities in railway construction
In railway construction, general occupational safety overlaps with the railway-specific hazards from train traffic and the overhead line. SiGeKo coordination must therefore interact with the Betra, the safety supervision and the switching states. Anyone who knows both worlds avoids double rules and gaps at the interface.
What is risked without a SiGeKo
Without coordination, the protective measures of the individual trades collide in an uncoordinated way. Typical consequences are mutually endangering activities, double or contradictory rules and, in the worst case, accidents for which the client bears responsibility.
Appointing a SiGeKo is therefore not a formality but a safeguard for the client. It documents that occupational safety has been organised across all trades and, in the event of damage, creates a clear line of responsibility instead of open questions.
SiGeKo, occupational safety specialist and construction supervision
In practice several safety roles get confused. The SiGeKo coordinates the interaction of the trades on the site under the Construction Site Ordinance. The occupational safety specialist, by contrast, advises a single employer on their own occupational safety. The two have different clients and different tasks.
Construction supervision, in turn, is responsible for proper and safe execution, not for coordinating occupational safety between the firms. In railway construction a fourth function is added with the safety supervisor, who secures solely against train traffic.
These roles complement one another but do not replace one another. Anyone who mixes them up or assumes that one function also covers another leaves gaps in responsibility that, in an emergency, become visible exactly where no one was in charge.
For the client it therefore makes sense to name the roles clearly early on and to bundle them where it is technically appropriate. A body that brings together construction supervision and safety responsibility in the railway area noticeably reduces the number of interfaces.
Häufige Fragen
When is a SiGeKo mandatory?
As soon as employees of several employers work on a construction site. Depending on the scope, advance notice and a SiGe plan are added.
Who must appoint the SiGeKo?
The client. They may delegate the task but remain responsible for the proper appointment.
Does the SiGeKo replace the safety supervisor in railway construction?
No. The SiGeKo coordinates the occupational safety of the trades; the safety supervisor secures the work site against train traffic. The two functions complement one another.
Edoé Lassey
Edoé Lassey führt die LND Ingenieure GmbH als Bauüberwacher und Ingenieur für Infrastruktur- und Tiefbau. Die zertifizierten Rollen Technischer Berechtigter, Sicherungsüberwacher, Schaltantragsteller und Bauvorlageberechtigung gehören zum Leistungskern.
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