Site-Specific Safety Plan (SSSP)

If you've been asked for an SSSP and stalled because your written safety program is "the company one" — generic, not project-tied — you're not alone. A site-specific safety plan is what general contractors require before letting your crew through the gate. It's not your corporate safety manual. It's the corporate manual plus the specifics of the project you're about to start: the address, the scope, the hazards, the people, the emergency response, the controls.

Most GCs won't sign your contract sub-tier paperwork without one. Most don't read past the first ten pages — but they'll spot a generic plan in thirty seconds.

What an SSSP is, in one paragraph

An SSSP is a written document that pulls your company safety program down onto a single job. It identifies the project, the scope of your work, the foreseeable hazards in that scope at that site, the controls you'll use, the people responsible, and the emergency response for that location. OSHA does not have a single rule that says "you must write an SSSP" — it's a contractual document driven by GCs and prime contracts. But it draws directly on OSHA standards in 29 CFR 1926 (construction) and 29 CFR 1910 (general industry).

What goes in an SSSP — the sections GCs actually check

1. Project identification. Project name, address, GC, prime contractor, your company, your scope of work, dates.
2. Key personnel and responsibilities. Site supervisor, competent person(s), first-aid responder, safety contact. Names, not titles.
3. Scope of work and sequencing. What your crew is doing, in what order, with what equipment.
4. Hazard analysis. A summary of the JHAs / JSAs covering each major task. Either inline or appended.
5. Hazard controls. Engineering controls, administrative controls, PPE — in that order.
6. Site-specific training and orientation. Site induction, daily huddles, who delivers them.
7. Emergency response. Nearest hospital, evacuation routes, muster points, severe weather plan. Address-specific.
8. Incident reporting. Who calls whom, in what order, within what time frame.
9. Substance abuse and drug-and-alcohol policy. Often required by GC.
10. Subcontractor management. If you have your own subs under you.
11. Inspections and audits. Frequency, who, what gets recorded.
12. Required permits. Hot work, confined space, excavation, lockout/tagout — list them.
13. Sign-off page. Your safety officer, project manager, and the crew lead.

Site-specific vs corporate safety program

Your corporate construction safety program describes how your company manages safety in general. The SSSP describes how those policies apply to one specific job — with the hospital address, the GC's site rules, the actual crew, and the actual hazards. Copying the corporate program into a Word doc and changing the cover sheet is the most common mistake. GCs spot it immediately.

The fix: keep your corporate program as a referenced attachment. Use the SSSP to do the work of mapping it onto this specific project.

Common GC requirements

Different GCs have different templates. Most want some version of:

• A 20–40 page SSSP delivered before mobilization
• JHAs / AHAs for each major task, appended or referenced
• OSHA 30 cards for supervisors, OSHA 10 for everyone else
• Proof of competent person training for trenching, scaffolding, fall protection where they apply
• Insurance certificates (separate from the SSSP but bundled in the prequal packet)
• An emergency action plan keyed to the site address

How long an SSSP takes to write

From scratch in Word, a competent safety person needs four to eight hours to produce a defensible SSSP for a mid-size commercial project. Most of that time is the JHA appendix and the site-specific emergency response section. Pulling the corporate boilerplate is fast; tailoring it is slow.

With a structured builder, the boilerplate is done — your time goes into the parts that actually need your judgment.

Build your SSSP with Riskora

Riskora's SSSP module pulls your company information, the project address, and the JHAs you've already built into a structured plan. You answer the project-specific questions; the platform assembles the document. Download to PDF. Edit if the GC has a specific template they require.

If you've already built JHAs in the platform for the tasks on this job, they're auto-appended. If you haven't, the platform prompts you through them. Same hazard libraries, same OSHA references.

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Related: JHA generator · Construction safety plan template · AHA for USACE projects