T he pedestrian traffic control infrastructure at the spectator facilities, such as stadiums, is specified in many European and national standards and regulations, as well as ones issued by various organisations. The cycle of articles to be published in our Magazine will form an attempt to determine the set of such documents, with their general description. This article presents two important European standards regarding the infrastructure of spectator facilities, in particular focusing on requirements for designing the audience and separating elements, such as fences, turnstiles and barriers directing pedestrian traffic.
Such standards, namely EN13200-1 (adopted by CEN on 18 September 2003) and EN13200-3 (adopted by CEN on 7 October 2005), define requirements for audience, appropriate infrastructure of the traffic system and its labelling, specification of designed capacity of the spectator facility, exit capacity from the audience, safety requirements for barriers, such as fences, turnstiles and barriers directing pedestrian traffic, as well as appropriate infrastructure for the entrance and parameters of turnstiles, as well as exit gates and doors.
Such standards determine technical requirements for entrance turnstiles, fences, and separating elements. Such requirements particularly refer to technical parameters of such devices as turnstiles, fences and barriers, to be designed in such a way so that they can sustain at least horizontal forces stated in the annex to the standard, (in Tables A1, A2, and A3);
- requirements for minimum height (particularly refers to barriers of the external zone subject to crowd pressure, namely walls, fences, turnstiles, entrance and exit doors and gates,
- requirements for the structure of barriers and turnstiles as regards permissible deformations and strength of fixings,
- requirements for safety of use and maintenance (the barriers must not have sharp edges or protruding places that may cause injuries, damage to clothes, or other damage.
Elements must be designed in such a way so as to stop people without causing injuries from sharp edges, thin fragments, protruding parts; with barrier structure to allow for safe maintenance.
When constructing barriers and turnstiles, account for manipulation by unauthorised persons or for acts of vandalism,
- requirements for emergency access to the site at a spectator facility,
Such standards also specify the requirement for counting the persons. When entering to all sectors, including VIP zones, spectators must be accurately counted, and their number must be continuously controlled so as to prevent exceeding the safe capacity or designed capacity of a spectator facility. The counting requirement shall also apply where entrance to the facility is only provided to ticket holders.
When designing the infrastructure, in particular, account for Annex A to standard EN13200-3, which states minimum requirements for strength parameters of turnstiles, barriers, fences and separating elements, regarding horizontal forces.The author of the standard recommends that all barriers should sustain test strength equivalent to forces applied horizontally with the value stated in Chart A1 multiplied by 1.2 coefficient, whereas for barrier foundations the safety coefficient totals 2.0.
The author of the standard also recommends that the location and setting of safety barriers and elements directing the crowd e.g. to the entrance via turnstiles or gates should be planned in such a way that possible horizontal forces applied must not exceed 5 kN/m, as short-lasting load in excess of 5 kN/m poses a risk of body injuries to persons directly at the barriers or other elements of the infrastructure.
Works are in progress on another update of the aforementioned safety standards to apply to spectator facilities.
