Infrastructure for pedestrian traffic control at event venues such as stadiums is defined in numerous European, national, as well as organization-issued standards and regulations. The series of articles to be published in our magazine aims to identify a set of these documents along with their general overview. In this article, we present two important European standards related to event venue infrastructure, particularly with regard to requirements for grandstand design and separating elements such as fences, turnstiles, and crowd guidance barriers.

W/w normy o oznaczeniach EN13200-1 (norma została przyjęta przez CEN dnia 18 września 2003), EN13200-3 (norma została przyjęta przez CEN dnia 7 października 2005) określają m.in. wymagania dotyczące widowni, właściwą infrastrukturę systemu komunikacji i oznakowania, określenie pojemności projektowanej obiektu widowiskowego, przepustowości wyjścia z widowni, wymagania bezpieczeństwa dotyczące barier jakimi są ogrodzenia, kołowroty, barierki ukierunkowujące ruchu osobowo, właściwą infrastrukturę wejścia i parametry kołowrotów, a także bram i drzwi wyjściowych.

The above-mentioned standards EN 13200-1 (adopted by CEN on September 18, 2003) and EN 13200-3 (adopted by CEN on October 7, 2005) define, among other things, requirements for spectator areas, appropriate communication and signage infrastructure, determination of the design capacity of event venues, exit flow capacity from spectator areas, safety requirements for barriers such as fences, turnstiles, and crowd guidance barriers, as well as proper entrance infrastructure and parameters for turnstiles, gates, and exit doors.

• wymagania w zakresie minimalnej wysokości (dotyczy w szczególności barier obszaru zewnętrznego poddawanych naporowi tłumu, które stanowią ściany, ogrodzenia, kołowroty, drzwi wejściowe i wyjściowe oraz bramy,
• requirements regarding minimum height (particularly for barriers in external areas exposed to crowd pressure, including walls, fences, turnstiles, entrance and exit doors, and gates),
• requirements regarding safety of use and maintenance (barriers should not have sharp edges or protruding elements that may cause injury to persons, damage to clothing, or other harm.

Elements should be designed to restrain people without causing injury from sharp edges, thin components, or protruding parts, and the design of barriers should allow for safe maintenance. W konstruowaniu barier, kołowrotów należy wziąć pod uwagę możliwość manipulowania przez osób niepowołane lub akty wandalizmu,

• requirements regarding emergency access to the event area at the venue,

The above-mentioned standards also specify a requirement for counting persons. Spectators entering all sectors, including VIP areas, must be accurately counted and continuously monitored to prevent exceeding the safe capacity or the design capacity of the venue. This requirement also applies when access to the venue is limited to ticket holders only.

When designing infrastructure, particular attention should be paid to Annex A of EN 13200-3, which specifies minimum strength requirements for turnstiles, barriers, fences, and separation elements with regard to horizontal loads. The standard recommends that all barriers withstand test loads equivalent to the horizontal loads specified in Table A1 multiplied by a factor of 1.2, while for barrier foundations the safety factor should be 2.0.

The standard also recommends that the location and arrangement of safety barriers and crowd-guiding elements, such as those directing people to entrances through turnstiles or gates, be designed so that horizontal loads applied to them do not exceed 5 kN/m, as short-term loads exceeding 5 kN/m may pose a risk of injury to persons located in close proximity to the barrier or other infrastructure elements.

Work is currently underway on a further revision of the above-mentioned standards concerning safety at event venues.