Temporary Fencing vs Pedestrian Barriers at Road Works

Temporary fencing and pedestrian barriers do different jobs at road works. Temporary fencing keeps the public out of a work area. Pedestrian barriers guide people along a safe, continuous and detectable route past it. Neither is designed to stop a vehicle. Mixing them up leaves gaps and trip hazards.

On most urban jobs you will need both: fencing around the excavation and stockpiles, and pedestrian barriers along the temporary footpath. Problems start when one is asked to do the other's job, usually because a stack of mesh panels is already on the truck. This guide explains what each device is for, what makes a pedestrian route genuinely safe, and how to check a set-up before people use it.

Three different jobs: exclude, guide and protect

Start with the function, then pick the device.

The common failure is treating any device that stands in a line as a barrier. Bunting does not stop a child walking into an excavation. A mesh fence does not guide a cane user. A pedestrian barrier does not stop a car.

What the standards cover

The AS 4687 series covers temporary fencing and hoardings. Its parts deal with general requirements, temporary fencing and temporary pedestrian barriers, and temporary hoardings, including design, installation, performance and stability. AS 1742.3 covers traffic control devices for works on roads, including managing pedestrians. State road authorities add their own supplements and guidance. Check the current editions through Standards Australia and your road authority.

Accessibility matters too. A temporary route still has to work for people with disability, including people who are blind or have low vision, people using wheelchairs or walking frames, and parents with prams. Our accessible pedestrian detour checklist covers the whole journey; this article focuses on the devices that form the edges of the route.

What makes a good pedestrian barrier

A pedestrian barrier works when someone can follow it safely without seeing it. Check for these features:

• Continuous along the route. Units connected with no gaps. A gap of even one unit is where someone walks through.
• Detectable at ground level. A rail or skirt close to the ground that a long cane sweeping the path can find and follow. Cane users rely on this to stay on the route.
• A rail at hand height that people can use for guidance and support.
• Smooth on the pedestrian side. No feet, clamps or bases sticking out into the path.
• Stable. Interlocked and ballasted where needed so units do not tip in wind or when someone leans on them.
• Visible. Contrasting colour in daylight and retroreflective elements where the route is used at night.
• Leaves enough clear width. Enough space for wheelchairs, prams and two-way foot traffic. Take minimum widths from the current road authority guidance and the TGS.

Where temporary fencing fits, and where it fails

Temporary fencing is the right choice for excluding the public: around excavations, stockpiles, plant compounds and the work area after hours. Managing the risk of people falling into an excavation is a WHS duty, and fencing is often part of that control. The SWMS and site plan should show where it goes.

Fencing fails when it is used as the edge of a pedestrian route:

• The base is not continuous. The gap under mesh panels and between feet lets a cane pass through.
• The feet are trip hazards. Concrete or plastic feet commonly stick out either side of the panel line.
• Joins and clamps can be sharp at hand height.
• Cladding turns it into a sail. Shade cloth and banners greatly increase wind load, and a collapsed panel can fall across the very path it was meant to protect. Clad fencing needs bracing and ballast as the manufacturer or an engineer specifies.

The fix is usually simple: keep fencing on the work side and run pedestrian barriers along the path, or use a fencing system specifically designed and documented to provide pedestrian guidance. Turn fence feet towards the work area wherever the panel line borders a path.

Neither is a vehicle barrier

If pedestrians or workers need protection from errant vehicles, that is a job for a road safety barrier, selected by the TGS designer and installed as an accepted system with its required deflection space and end treatments.

Be careful about fencing next to live lanes. A struck fence panel can be pushed into the footpath or thrown into traffic. Queensland's Transport and Main Roads guidance warns that fencing with rigid horizontal rails near traffic can be a hazard if struck, because rails can detach and enter a vehicle. Keep fencing back from the traffic edge where the plan allows, and raise it with the designer where it cannot be.

Water-filled and concrete barriers are not designed as pedestrian guidance either. Their feet and shape may not give a cane user a continuous line to follow, and they are often too low to act as a rail. Where a road safety barrier forms the edge of a pedestrian route, pedestrian barriers or a guidance rail may still be needed. Our guide to water-filled versus concrete barriers covers the vehicle side.

Setting up a pedestrian route: a walk-through

Before opening a temporary footpath, walk it as the people who will use it.

1. Walk it in both directions, starting well before the works, so you see the approach as pedestrians do.
2. Check every transition. Kerb ramps, driveways, bus stops, crossings and the points where the temporary route meets the permanent footpath are where most problems sit. Our guide to temporary bus stop access covers one of the trickiest.
3. Do the cane test with a broom along both edges.
4. Check width and surface for wheelchairs and prams, including slopes, loose gravel and plates.
5. Check gates in fence lines. Any opening for plant or deliveries needs to be controlled and closed when not in use, so pedestrians are not led into the work area.
6. Check signs and lighting. Signs telling pedestrians where to go should be at eye height and not blocking the path. Routes used after dark need adequate lighting and visible barriers.
7. Recheck after any change. Deliveries, plant moves and wind change routes during the shift.

For the wider planning of footpath closures and detours, see our guide to pedestrian management at work sites.

Inspection checklist for pedestrian barriers and fencing

Printable versions of our checklists are on the free checklists page. Inspect pedestrian routes at the same times as the rest of the traffic control: in NSW practice, at the start and end of every shift and at suitable intervals during it. Safe Work Australia has general guidance on managing public safety around construction work.

Common mistakes on site

• Using mesh fencing as the footpath edge because it is already on the truck. It excludes, it does not guide.
• One missing unit. A single gap in a pedestrian barrier line, often left for a delivery and never closed, is where someone walks into the work area.
• Feet in the path. Fence feet and barrier bases sticking out into a narrowed footpath trip people, particularly at night.
• Tape and cones as a "barrier". They mark an area; they do not protect or guide anyone who cannot see them.
• Barriers placed, then forgotten. Wind, plant and the public move units through the day. The route at 3 pm is not the route you set up at 7 am.
• No plan for after hours. Pedestrian routes and fencing must still work when the crew has gone, so check them as part of the after-hours layout.

This is general information, not engineering or accessibility advice. Device selection and route design come from the approved TGS, prepared by a suitably qualified person, and the current standards and road authority guidance.

Next steps

Do the broom test on your next temporary footpath and fix the gaps before the public finds them. If you run a traffic control company, TrafWise records inspections and photos against each job, so pedestrian route checks are documented through the shift.