Hoarding design and council approval in Sydney

Hoarding design and council approval in Sydney

Any site in Sydney that touches a public footpath needs a hoarding, and most programmes treat it as a hire item rather than as a structure. It is a structure, and on a busy street it is a certified one.

The two types

A Type A hoarding is a solid fence along the boundary of the site, protecting the public from the works behind it. It carries wind load, it needs to resist someone leaning on it or a crowd pressing against it, and it needs footings or ballast that will hold it in a storm.

A Type B hoarding is an overhead protective structure, a gantry across the footpath with a deck above it, so pedestrians can keep using the path while work happens overhead. It carries everything a Type A does plus the load of anything falling onto the deck, plus whatever the site stores or stacks on top of it, plus wind on the hoarding screens above.

Type B is the one that gets underestimated, because the deck is often used as a storage platform or as a working level and was quoted as pedestrian protection.

What the design has to resist

Wind, and specifically wind on a large flat panel in a street where buildings channel it. A hoarding is a sail, and hoardings blow over.

Impact. A vehicle mounting a kerb, or plant swinging inside the site.

Imposed load on the deck of a Type B, which depends entirely on how the site intends to use it. That has to be declared and then signed off, and it has to be stated on the drawings so the site does not exceed it later.

Support conditions. Kentledge, bolted footings, or props bearing on the existing building. Each one changes the design, and props bearing onto an existing structure mean that structure has to be checked as well.

The approval path

Occupation of a footpath or road reserve requires a licence or permit from the council, and Sydney councils run their own application processes with their own conditions.

The application generally needs the design drawings, a structural certificate from an engineer, evidence of insurance, a pedestrian management plan, and details of lighting and signage. Some councils require the hoarding to be finished to a standard for appearance, particularly in a town centre.

Fees are usually charged per square metre of footpath per week, which is why the programme matters. A hoarding left in place longer than planned is a running cost, and reducing its footprint is a genuine saving.

Where projects come unstuck

Applying late. The permit takes time, and the site cannot start until the footpath is secured.

Designing the hoarding before the site sequence is known, so the deck ends up in the wrong place or in the way of the crane.

Using the Type B deck as a laydown area when it was designed for pedestrian protection only.

Modifying it on site. Cutting an opening for a truck entry, extending a run, or removing a prop changes the structure, and it needs to go back to the designer rather than be resolved by the crew on the day.

How it fits the rest of the temporary works

A hoarding sits alongside the other temporary structures on a site, propping, shoring, crane bases and site sheds, and they interact. A hoarding prop bearing on a slab that is also carrying a crane base is a single problem, not two.

We design and certify this work as part of structural engineering, usually with the project management side coordinating the council application so the permit and the design arrive together rather than sequentially.