Highways licensing

Gantries, Hoists and Site Huts

NOTE: Permission will not be granted for the erection of gantries for storing materials or as working platforms for hoists and associated equipment if there is any practical alternative on site.

General requirements

Gantries must comply with the following requirements:

• Gantry platforms must be double-boarded with polythene sheeting between each layer and set at a minimum headroom clearance of 2.44 metres from the surface of the footway. When required, the outer standards or columns of the gantry must be encases in plywood up to 1.22 metres high and boxed in at the top.
• Once the gantry has been erected, any bracing etc. used at ground level, or less than 2.44 metres above the footway, must be removed to allow safe passage by pedestrians.
• The outer standards of the gantry erected on the pavement must not be closer than 0.45 metres to the kerb edge, unless other arrangements have been agreed with City Council.
• Any gantry that projects beyond the kerb edge must have at least 4.88 metres clearance above the surface of the carriageway.
• Where agreement has been obtained to erect the outer standards of the gantry nearer than 0.45 metres to the kerb edge, baulk timbers 300mmx300mm must be placed on the carriageway for the full length of the scaffolding. These timbers must be painted red and white and fitted with red bulkhead lights at 3 metre intervals.
• Gantries must be lit from half an hour after sunset to half an hour before sunrise.
• On the inside of the structure, white bulkhead lights must be set at each end of the structure 2.44 metres high and at 3 metre intervals. Similarly, on the outside of the structure, red bulkhead lights must be set at each end of the structure 2.44 metres high and at 3 metres intervals.

Hoists

Mechanical or platform hoists must not descend onto, or operate from the public highway. Permission will only be granted for hoists to be operated from a gantry platform at first floor level or above.

Gin wheels and other forms of rope or cable operated hoists must be used only on the outside of scaffolding, and then only when the scaffolding reaches the kerb edge. In these circumstances building materials must be hoisted from the carriageway and are never permitted over the footway. Any other kind of hoisting must be carried out on private land.

The hoisting of hot tar buckets is not permitted on the road except from a gantry platform, and is never permitted from the footway.

Site Huts

The City Council does not allow site huts or office accommodation to be put on gantries on or over any part of the public highway. Offices must be contained within the boundaries of your site.

If there is not enough space on site for accommodation, you should use alternatives such as rented office space.

The one exception is where a building has been totally demolished and open basement construction is to be carried out. In this circumstance temporary accommodation on a gantry may be allowed for welfare and messing facilities, only, and for a set period of time. Again, you should apply to the Highways Licensing Team.

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