Building Plan Approval
Building Plan Approval
If you are building or renovating it is more than likely that you will need Sydney Water approval.
Your Development Application (DA) from Council or Complying Certificate (CC) paperwork, will state that you need to get approval via a process called Sydney Water Building Plan Approval or Sydney Water Tap In.
To enable you to go ahead with your proposed building work you will need Building Plan Approval.
Full assessment of your application and building plans by a technical expert will determine if your proposed works will affect Sydney Water assets. Either you can do the first assessment stage yourself online at Sydney Water Tap in or MGP can complete this on your behalf for $250+gst.
The Tap in service will either approve your plans or they will refer you to a Sydney Water Water Servicing Coordinator (WSC), like MGP, for further assessment, advice and additional costs.
If you are building or renovating it is more than likely that you will need Sydney Water approval, as your property may be near or over Sydney Water assets.
When building or renovating, proposed works must comply with Sydney Water’s Building Over and Adjacent to Pipe Assets Guideline.
Sydney Water has a process to ensure your projects don’t restrict Sydney Waters’ ability to remediate their assets if required, a process that also ensures you don’t impact, damage, or put unnecessary stress on their assets, which are in place to support the wider community.
This process is called Sydney Water Building Plan Approval.
Sydney Water have concise guidelines to the required clearances when building over and adjacent to their assets.If you’re unable to achieve the clearances, then protection measures need to be undertaken. Your accredited Water Servicing Coordinator (WSC) will provide advice on clearances.
For standard assets you will need to provide your WSC with evidence, architectural and structural plan and sections, showing that the proposed work during construction and for the long term will have no impact on these Sydney Water assets.
For non-standard you will need to provide significantly more evidence, due to the critical nature of these assets.
Your WSC will identify if you are dealing with standard Sydney Water asset(s) or more complex non-standard asset(s), like Brick Oviform or Stormwater assets.
The Process
The standard asset process is known as Sydney Water In Scope Building Plan Approval or simply BPA is as follows:
- Application – Tap In assessment
- Proposal – WSC will assess and provide stages and associated fee
- Locate – Undertake a Peg Out and issue Service Protection Report
- Assess – SPR detail overlaid by architect on the site plan, and then we will make an assessment and mark up the drawing for the structural engineer. Structural engineer to provide plan/ sections, clearances and/or protection measures meet Sydney Water requirements
- Approve – WSC stamp plans and provide letter of requirements
- Inspect – Construction phase: clearance inspections
- Finalise – WSC complete final paperwork / submit a Project Completion Package to Sydney Water to conf
Standard Project Timeframes
A Standard Sydney Water Asset Project is approximately 3-4 weeks to stamping of the plansL
- Tap In assessment – immediate response by Sydney Water
- WSC assess / provide stages and associated fee – allow 1-2 days
- Peg Out onsite and issue Service Protection Report – once fee approved allow 5-7 days to complete from satisfactory site works
- Stamp plans and provide letter of requirements – once architectural and structural plan/sections provided, and clearances achieved, allow 1 day to stamp and issue letter of requirements
- Construction phase: clearance inspections: pier and concrete encasement – allow 48 hours to book with our team
WSC complete final paperwork / submit to Sydney Water – within 7 days of the final inspection
Non-Standard Sydney Water Assets
For non-standard Sydney Water structures/assets there are additional stages, costs and timeframes; this process is called Out of Scope Building Plan Approval (BPA).
Typically an Out of Scope BPA assessment is required when proposed building works are;
- Near or over a non-pipe sewer infrastructure (eg tunnel, oviform), assets over 300mm in size
- Any water or recycled water pipe
- Any ventshaft
- Proposed works on land with a Sydney Water easement
- Proposed works on land with Sydney Water owned stormwater infrastructure within 10m of the property boundary
- Construction of a retaining wall over one (1) metre
- Any basement excavation deeper than 3m (and construction works) over or adjacent to a Sydney Water asset including any works resulting in anchors within or through the zone of influence of the Sydney Water asset
- Any dewatering
An Out of Scope BPA assessment will require a Service Protection Report, Architectural and Structural drawings with clearances and protection measures specified, in addition you will be required to provide a Specialist Engineering Report by a certified Civil Engineer, Construction Methodology, Geotechnical Report and often CCTV.
Each project needs to be reviewed individually and the MGP team will provide you with a detailed requirements list. All documentation will then need to be submitted by MGP on your behalf for Sydney Water to assess. This initial assessment by Sydney Water can take between 12-14 weeks. If they are satisfied then they will issue an approval, and MGP can then stamp your plans. Further documentation may be requested by Sydney Water and an additional assessment period required.