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Civil Engineering & Construction vocabulary · Site Safety

Permit to work

Meaning in civil engineering & construction, with examples

nounCommon term

In civil engineering & construction, permit to work means: A formal written authorisation needed before high-risk work, such as hot work, entry into a confined space or electrical work, confirming that the hazards are under control.

In Turkish: çalışma izni, iş izni

How it is used

A permit to work is requested, issued, signed and closed out for a specific task, place and time. It is often shortened to PTW, and people also talk about a hot work permit or an excavation permit.

Example sentences

  1. You need a permit to work before you start welding in the plant room.

  2. The permit to work expired at 5 p.m., so the team had to stop.

Common collocations

  • issue a permit to work
  • hot work permit
  • confined space permit
  • permit to work system
  • close out a permit
  • risk assessmentA careful review of a task or work area to identify hazards, judge how likely and how serious harm could be, and decide on control measures; also the document that records this.
  • method statementA document that explains step by step how a particular task will be carried out safely, including the sequence, equipment, people and controls.
  • working at heightAny work where a person could fall a distance and be injured, such as work on scaffolding, ladders or roofs, or near open edges and excavations.
  • weldTo join two pieces of metal by melting them together with heat, usually from an electric arc. As a noun, a weld is the joint this creates.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: Site Safety

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