Civil construction in Newfoundland and Labrador

STA 0+120Excavation and trench rules

Newfoundland and Labrador’s occupational health and safety rules set when an excavation must be sloped, shored or boxed, and when an engineer must design the protection.

• A worker shall not enter an excavation over 1.22 metres deep unless sides are sloped to a safe angle and secured by sheet piling, shoring and bracing or a trench box, or the worker is otherwise protected (s. 406(4)); 'trench' means an excavation less than 3.7 m wide at the bottom and more than 1.2 m deep (s. 376)¹
• Before excavation with power tools/equipment in an area likely to have underground services, the employer must accurately determine and mark their location (s. 406(1)); spoil not within 1.22 m of a trench edge or 1.52 m of a pit edge (s. 408(1))¹

STA 0+240Locates before you dig

• Info-Excavation provides free locate requests for Quebec and the Atlantic provinces; expect a 3 business day delay before starting work (emergency as short as an hour); 1-800-663-9228²

The paint colours are the same across Canada: white for the proposed excavation, pink for survey, then red, yellow, orange, blue, green and purple for the buried services. See call before you dig.

STA 0+360Holdbacks and prompt payment

We have not yet verified Newfoundland and Labrador’s holdback and prompt-payment provisions from the legislation. Until we do, check the province’s lien legislation directly and see how holdbacks work.

STA 0+480The market

Capital spending on engineering construction in Newfoundland and Labrador was $4.5 billion in 2024³, out of $155.8 billion nationally³.

STA 0+600Tenders, associations and specifications

• Provincial portal: Public Procurement Agency⁴
• Federal work in the province: open CanadaBuys construction notices
• Heavy Civil Association of Newfoundland and Labrador: heavycivilnl.ca⁵