Pedestrian Barriers

Pedestrian barriers are specific types of road safety railings to guide and protect pedestrian movements in an area. You can also use them in other areas involving works or events with pedestrian access.

But there are standard sets of rules and regulations regarding the pedestrian barriers considerations. You must follow them to install the barriers to ensure the pedestrian’s safety properly.

Pedestrian barriers are important for the following reasons:

• To secure a safe pathway: In certain areas, the pedestrians may be at risk of hazards from traffic or other objects. Pedestrian barriers are important so that you can isolate and secure a safe pathway for pedestrians.
• Comply with standard regulations: You must comply with legal regulations for specific sectors to set up pedestrian barriers following particular guidelines.
• Crowd control: Pedestrian barriers are important to control the crowd gatherings in important areas. In areas with or without any risk of safety hazards, use the pedestrian barriers to create sections and specify functionality in each area.
• Ensure safety at construction zones: Perhaps one of the most common usages of pedestrian barriers is construction zones, where they help keep passers-by away from hazardous working areas.

Moreover, you can control an efficient movement flow and fixed directions for the pedestrians. A separate and dedicated pathway will reduce confusion. This will facilitate a smooth pedestrian movement flow.

The different types of pedestrian barriers are:

• Steel single-leg flat base barrier to set up in soft flooring areas
• Steel fixed cross-leg barrier for quick and easy setup on areas with hard floors
• Walkthrough barriers to create entry points
• The plastic boss barrier for heavy-duty application
• Pedestrian barrier chains for low-height, heavy-duty service.
• The water-filled barrier for road works safety and better stability.
• Plastic navigator barrier with reflective signage for low-light/night usage
• Avalon barrier for multiple colors with high visibility feature
• Retractable barriers for quick width adjustment feature
• The frontier barrier for pedestrian safety at construction sites
• Utility barriers to create a safety perimeter around any utility

Each material is special, with some unique properties. So, different materials are used to manufacturing pedestrian barriers that serve best for various functionalities, include:

1. Metal pedestrian barriers

Steel pedestrian barriers: The steel pedestrian barriers are extremely strong. They can offer a very high-strength and shock-absorbing capacity to keep pedestrians safe from any sudden impact.

In general, hot rolled mild steel is used to manufacture steel pedestrian barriers. You can get different qualities of surface finishing for better durability.

For example, if you want to use them in extreme conditions, galvanised pedestrian barriers or powder-coated pedestrian barriers should be your ideal choice. They are highly resistant to corrosion and deterioration.

Aluminum pedestrian barriers: Aluminum road safety barriers are lightweight, durable and suitable for applications where easier handling is required.

2. Plastic pedestrian barriers

Nowadays, plastic pedestrian barriers are growing more and more popular every day. You can adapt the plastic barriers for so many versatile application scopes. This makes them an ideal choice in the global market.

3. Concrete jersey barrier

The precast concrete jersey barriers are designed to offer maximum durability and minimum maintenance. With feature forklift slots at the bottom, they are easily be lifted and then redirected.

Pedestrian barriers are used to guide and protect the pedestrian in an area. To offer optimum protection, you must ensure that the pedestrian barrier you are using has sufficient height. Different manufacturers produce pedestrian barriers with different heights based on functionality.

They follow the standard sizes that are suitable for the type of barrier and their application. The pedestrian barriers should be of a height similar to or more than the waist level. They should not be too high, as this will reduce the visibility.

So, you will find most of the pedestrian barriers with a height just above the waist level. You can find typical pedestrian barriers with a height starting from 900 mm to 1300 mm. Some pedestrian barriers may have higher or lower heights based on specific functionality.

Pedestrian barrier is something that you are bound to come across in your daily life whether it’s in the industrial/commercial building site, a roadworks construction site or the scene of an accident.

Barricades can be served as a warning of the dangers, or as a crowd control barrier.

Different manufacturers offer different materials and sizes of the pedestrian barricade in many different colors, but OSHA and ANSI provide the precise specifications for barricade colors.

Red / white should be used for Fire Prevention and Protection Equipment in OSHA standards.

As the ANSI specified colors, red indicates DANGER and SERIOUS HAZARD for overhead work, live electrical components, scaffolding under construction, or equipment with a rotating superstructure.

Health and safety regulations state in the UK that markings should be placed around obstacles or dangerous locations that will present a risk, such as the area of people tripping or falling, objects falling or people or vehicles colliding with objects.

Depending on the level of access control and the security measures a facility requires, permanent or temporary pedestrian barriers might best suit the following application.

Permanent Pedestrian Barriers: For heavy-duty security to prevent vehicle crashes. The stable structure can be designed to withstanding high-speed crashes and resisting wear over years of use.

Temporary Pedestrian Barriers: Flexible and removable access control, detering pedestrians from entering restricted or insecurity areas at specific times, easy setup, relocation and storage.

The pedestrian barriers are manufactured from strong materials. It makes them an ideal solution to keep pedestrians safe in construction areas.

During the construction works, different pedestrians or passers-by may wander off in the neighboring operational areas. These areas are at a high risk of hazards from different construction materials. So, you can use the pedestrian barriers to limit the access of pedestrians within those areas.

Moreover, in construction sites, you often need to change the position of the barriers following immediate construction works. The temporary pedestrian barriers offer a high degree of adaptability. This helps you set up following multiple categories and adaptations.

You can also use the pedestrian barriers in the road construction sites. When roadside construction is in progress, use the pedestrian barriers to guide the traffic and pedestrians with an alternative route.

In this regard, you can use durable, bright-colored pedestrian barriers. They can clearly identify the safe movement path in the construction area.

Both the plastic and steel pedestrian barriers are highly functional. Each of them has some unique features that will give you some advantages over the other types. So, you have to consider some factors before choosing the best option for your application scope.

Strength: In terms of strength, steel pedestrian barriers are always the best option. At sensitive outdoor applications like a fireworks show or security-involved gatherings, the steel pedestrian barriers are suitable to offer sufficient protection.

The plastic pedestrian barriers are also strong enough to provide sufficient protection. They conform to the standard regulations with the required strength for pedestrian protection.

Sensitive application scopes: In different kinds of sites, your workers and pedestrians are at exposure to machinery-based appliances. Steel pedestrian barriers are the better choice in these cases.

Convenience: Plastic pedestrian barriers are lightweight and easier to handle, especially where frequent relocation is required.

The highly visible pedestrian barriers are important for:

A highly visible pedestrian barrier will be visible at all times. In low-light situations, the dull-colored pedestrian barriers may lose their visibility. So, you must use bright colors to ensure their visibility at low lights. Moreover, you can also install reflective stickers to make the barrier visible with the slightest touch of lights.

The pedestrian barriers that are highly visible can highlight their existence. There may be so many non-essential elements in the surrounding background. Since the barrier is the most important element concerning safety, so you need to highlight it the most from all other surrounding objects.

The pedestrians and surrounding traffic can easily identify the bright-colored highly visible pedestrian barriers even from a very far distance.

Since every concerned personnel can see the pedestrian barriers from a far distance, they can take quick action and reduce the risk of accidents.

Pedestrian barrier gates are used to assign a clear entry and exit point in the pedestrian barrier system. You can install this for facilitating site access points and crossings. This will help you to efficiently control the pedestrians in an area.

If you are using separate directional paths for the pedestrian, you should install two pedestrian barrier gates. One of them for entry and another for the exit. This will further increase the movement efficiency.

Apart from that, you can also install other features like an anti-trip or fixed feet system, swing gate, locking mechanism, etc., to achieve further benefits.

A pedestrian barrier chain is a series of linked rings that you can use as the partitioning medium. Sometimes the pedestrian barrier chains are manufactured from metal rings, and sometimes with plastic.

You need to install the two ends of the barrier chain with two barrier posts. You can use them in different construction zones, crowd gatherings, walkways, roadsides, etc. They will help you to guide the pedestrians in following a specified path and limit the passageway.