ITP generator — in-situ reinforced concrete

Formation to cover survey, with the gates where an issued ITP puts them — and the criteria a reviewer adds when you leave them out.

Reinforced concrete is the scope that carries the most hold points and loses the most evidence, and the two facts are the same fact. Formation is visible until the blinding goes down. Reinforcement is visible until the shutter closes. A construction joint is inspectable until the next lift covers it. Every one of those is an hour of somebody’s time before the pour and a fortnight of argument afterwards if it was not recorded.

The plan this page writes follows the sequence a real substructure ITP follows — not a generic quality template with concrete words in it. It opens with the checks that gate a start on site, runs through the pour, and closes with the cover survey and the as-built, because that is where the corpus it is built from closes.

It is free and there is no sign-up. Type the scope, read the whole plan on screen. Where the tool has not been given your specification, project-specific criteria come back marked TBC — EVIDENCE REQUIRED with the document that would close them named. That is the correct answer, not a limitation politely worded — an ITP that quietly fills a tolerance with a typical value is worse than one that leaves the box open, because somebody signs the first one.

What controls in-situ reinforced concrete

These are the documents an acceptance criterion on this scope has to agree with. A criterion that restates the activity and attaches a reference is doing half the job.

• BS 8500-1 and BS 8500-2 (2023) — Concrete specification, exposure classes, cover and conformity. The 2023 edition superseded 2015+A2:2019 the same day it published, with no transition window. A schedule written to the old edition is not a minor revision behind — check which one your appendix is calling up.
• BS EN 13670 — Execution of concrete structures — including the curing classes.
• BS EN 12350 and BS EN 12390 series — Fresh concrete testing (slump, temperature, air) and hardened testing (cubes).
• BS EN 1992-1-1 — Design, and the durability and cover requirements that reach the ITP.
• MCHW Specification for Highway Works, Series 1700 — Structural concrete on highway schemes. OGL. As with every SHW series, the Clause tells you what to control and the contract-specific Appendix holds the number. An ITP citing only the Clause has not cited the requirement.
• BS 5975-1 and BS 5975-2 — Temporary works management, and falsework design and implementation. Now two parts. Clause numbers from the old single document no longer resolve — do not carry them into a signed ITP.

The inspection sequence, and where the gates fall

Hold points belong where the evidence stops being recoverable, and the test is always the same question: what becomes invisible next? On this scope that puts 10 of the 23 steps below at a hold point — the rest are witness points, surveillance, review or recorded inspection depending on your contract and on who is watching.

1. Check for open NCRs affecting the element — A closed NCR register is a legitimate hold point in its own right; it does not have to be a physical inspection.
2. Setting out — lines and levels, separately for ground support and for the element
3. [H] Permit to break ground — Installing setting-out pins counts as breaking ground. Steel pins are commonly banned in favour of fibreglass or timber unless a derogation is signed at manager level.
4. Ground support / sheet piling installed to the accepted temporary works design
5. [H] Formation inspection — material, cleanliness, level; no groundwater or standing water — The blinding covers it within the hour.
6. Blinding inspection — post-pour level, finish, extent, cleanliness, strength for prop release
7. Pile trimming, core holes, cut-off level, starter-bar condition, integrity testing
8. [H] Prefabricated cage inspection — bar size, number, spacing, overlap, welds
9. Kicker / construction joint — scabbling, cleanliness, level, starter bars, cast-in items
10. [H] Reinforcement installation — diameters, fixing, lap lengths, tie wire, spacing, cover, starter verticality, coupler torque — A bottom-mat inspection before the top mat goes on is a separate gate in its own right on a large cage.
11. [H] Permit to close the formwork
12. [H] Formwork and falsework to the TW design — lines, levels, cover, box-outs, release agent, top-of-concrete level
13. Cast-in items, recesses, joint filler, thermocouples
14. Permit to load — signed by the temporary works coordinator
15. [H] Pre-pour inspection — dimensions, cover, cleanliness, no standing water, all prior ITP items compliant — The gate everything else feeds. On the highest inspection levels this carries a third-party hold as well as the client witness.
16. [H] Concrete delivery — mix and slump per ticket, checked on each load, cubes taken
17. Placing — pour sequence, layer thickness, free chute, consolidation, weather and temperature
18. Finishing
19. [H] Curing and striking / permit to unload — strength to strike confirmed by maturity monitoring
20. [H] Post-pour inspection — surface, finish, any non-conformity recorded
21. Construction joint preparation for the next lift
22. Cover survey of the completed structure, then as-built survey
23. Waterproofing of buried surfaces before backfill, and protection of completed works

One rule that catches people and is not negotiable: hold points cascade upward. Where the client, the designer or a third party has identified an intervention as a hold point, it is a hold point in your column too. You cannot accept theirs and keep yours as a witness.

Acceptance criteria that survive a review

The acceptance-criteria column header in one real template is the whole test: what answer should we get if it is right? If the entry does not let a third party, months later, decide pass or fail from the record alone, it is not an acceptance criterion. These are from issued ITPs on this scope — not composed as illustrations:

• Concrete delivery temperature between 5 and 30 °C for CEM I or CEM II/A, or 5–35 °C for CEM II/B or CEM III; all surfaces in contact with fresh concrete free from ice and snow; frost blankets to be closed-cell polythene foam sheets of minimum 10 mm thickness.
• No more than 1.5 m of free chute; rate of rise as per temporary works design; concrete placement and vibration without displacing reinforcement.
• Construction joint free of surface laitance, curing agent, dust, wires, dirt, standing water or other materials; larger aggregate exposed without disturbing it; rugosity as per the trial panel.
• Cover survey completed on a 500 mm grid over the whole structure, not showing any sign of non-conformance.
• Cores flushed with the cut-off level measured from top of blinding; 2 no. cores in opposite directions for pile diameters ≤1.5 m and 3 no. in a star pattern for >1.5 m; cropping performed so that pile starters are not bent or damaged; any loose or unsound concrete removed following cropping.

Against which, the ones that get marked every time: as per design · as specified in the material approval form · as per manufacturer’s instruction · document accepted · within accepted tolerances · acceptable to use · visual inspection · see notes. They fail for one reason: they defer the criterion to a document the inspector does not have on the deck, and they give the person signing nothing to be wrong about.

What comes back TBC on this scope, and where it comes from

The generator does not have your specification, so it will not invent these. It marks them and names the document that would close them:

• The concrete class, exposure class and any additional BS 8500-1 requirements your appendix invokes
• Nominal cover and the fixing tolerance
• Cube frequency, and the strength required to strike — which comes from the temporary works designer, not from a table
• Surface finish class and the trial-panel reference
• Lap lengths and coupler torque values from the bar bending schedules

Other scopes

• ITP generator — earthworks and fill
• ITP generator — drainage
• ITP generator — formwork and falsework
• ITP generator — precast erection
• ITP generator — waterproofing

Why the generated draft is a draft, and stays one

Starting permanent works without an accepted ITP is a critical non-conformance in its own right, and proceeding through a hold point gets an NCR raised against you. Before this output is issued it needs the project references and drawing revisions, the criteria above completed from your specification, the responsible parties set against your own contract, the check-sheet numbering aligned — inspection item 4.12 on the ITP has to be item 4.12 on the check-sheet — and a named author, reviewer and approver.

So it says DRAFT — FOR COMPETENT REVIEW on its own title, and should keep saying it until a competent person has been through it against the specification.