Temporary works
Also called TW
Engineering works needed to allow permanent works to be constructed, but which are not part of the finished structure — excavation support, formwork, scaffolding and propping, for example, and the crane mats and outrigger pads used to support plant safely on site. Temporary works still need to be properly designed, checked and managed, even though they are removed once no longer required.
In practice
Crane mats sit inside this regime, and that is the point most often missed when they are ordered. A mat is not consumable site kit like a barrier or a bag of ballast — it is an engineered element carrying a designed load into designed ground, and it belongs to the same process of design, check and authorisation as a prop or a shoring scheme. Buying it as plant hire and using it as temporary works is how it ends up unchecked.
Where this comes from: UK contractor practice under a temporary works procedure. This describes how the regime operates on site; it is not a statutory definition.
Where it matters on site
The practical consequence is that somebody has to own the ground bearing case, and that ownership sits with the temporary works organisation rather than with the supplier. What the supplier provides is specification: published safe working loads, plan areas and build-ups. What the temporary works process provides is the design, the check and the authorisation to load — and the two are not substitutes for one another.