Design check categories and the temporary works budget: what to agree before the tender closes

Summary

Edition #7 starts from a number every scaffold has to meet: four times the maximum intended load under the 2026 Dubai Municipality Safety Guide. The harder question is who proves it, who checks the proof and who pays for both. The Guide already asks for temporary works designs and engineering office approval, but it does not say how independent the check on a design should be.

That choice, the design check category, drives cost and programme, so the edition argues it belongs in the tender. It explains the four categories used in the UK code BS 5975 (good practice, not a Dubai rule), the three items where the category most often gets lost (crane bases, back propping and splits between system and civil packages), and a practitioner view on notional loads from Kalyani Vedula of Tony Gee and Partners Middle East.

It closes with five budget lines that make temporary works visible at tender and five questions to ask before the price goes out.

Key points

• The Guide asks for designs, drawings and design loads for every scaffold, approved by the engineering office before erection, and for shoring and slab support systems designed by a specialised organisation.
• Check categories run from 0 (a standard solution used within its limits) to 3 (a separate organisation checks a complex or unusual design). Risk and complexity set the category, not the budget.
• A loading bay cantilevered off a system scaffold, a crane base on a grillage or tall back propping can move an item from Category 0 or 1 to Category 2 or 3.
• Price temporary works design, the design check, engineering office approval time, third party inspection for every relocation, and foundations for temporary works as their own lines.
• Write temporary works BOQ lines by purpose (access, scaffold, hoists, propping), not only by specification, so the scope is clear before work starts.

This page is a summary written for scaff.ae. The full edition was first published on LinkedIn. General guidance for project teams. Follow your project's temporary works procedure and the current Guide edition.

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