Temporary works supervisor
Also called TWS
The person responsible for supervising a specific temporary works item on site, checking it is constructed, positioned and maintained in accordance with its design, and reporting to the temporary works coordinator. On smaller sites, the role may be combined with other site supervisory responsibilities.
In practice
Where the coordinator owns the process, the supervisor owns one item in the ground. For a matting layout that means confirming the mats present are the mats specified, that they are where the design put them, and that they stay that way — because matting is unusually easy to move, borrow, part-lift or lay short once it is on site and no longer the subject of anyone’s attention.
Where this comes from: UK contractor practice under a temporary works procedure. This describes the role as it is operated; it is not a statutory definition.
Where it matters on site
Maintenance is the half most often dropped. A mat layout is checked once at set-up and then left through weather, traffic and repositioning, any of which changes the case it was designed for. A mat that has been driven over, bedded unevenly or relaid by hand on a different footprint is no longer the temporary works that was permitted, and the supervisor is the one placed to see it.