The personnel traffic control infrastructure in event venues such as stadiums is defined in numerous European, national, and various organizational standards and regulations. A series of articles to be published in our magazine aims to identify this set of documents along with their general description. In this article, we present two important European standards concerning event venue infrastructure, specifically the requirements for designing spectator areas and separating elements such as fences, turnstiles, and barriers guiding pedestrian traffic.

The aforementioned standards, designated EN13200-1 (adopted by CEN on September 18, 2003) and EN13200-3 (adopted by CEN on October 7, 2005), specify, among other things, requirements for spectator areas, proper communication and signage system infrastructure, determination of the designed capacity of an event venue, exit throughput from spectator areas, safety requirements for barriers such as fences, turnstiles, pedestrian traffic guiding barriers, proper entrance infrastructure and turnstile parameters, as well as gates and exit doors.

The aforementioned standards define technical requirements for entrance turnstiles, fences, and separating elements. These requirements particularly concern the technical parameters of devices such as turnstiles, fences, and barriers, which must be designed to safely withstand at least the horizontally applied loads specified in the annex to the standard,

• requirements for minimum height (especially concerning external area barriers subjected to crowd pressure, which include walls, fences, turnstiles, entrance and exit doors, and gates),
• requirements for the construction of barriers and turnstiles regarding permissible deformations and fastening strength,
• requirements for safety of use and maintenance (barriers should not have sharp edges or protruding parts that could cause injury to people, damage to clothing, or other damage).

Elements should be designed to restrain people without causing injury from sharp edges, thin fragments, or protruding parts. The construction of barriers should allow for their safe maintenance.

When designing barriers and turnstiles, the possibility of manipulation by unauthorized persons or acts of vandalism must be considered,

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

The aforementioned standards also specify the requirement for counting people. Spectators entering all sectors, including VIP areas, should be accurately counted, and their number continuously monitored to prevent exceeding the safe or designed capacity of the event venue. The counting requirement also applies when only ticket holders are allowed entry to the facility.

When designing the infrastructure, particular attention should be paid to Annex A of standard EN13200-3, which provides minimum requirements for the strength parameters of turnstiles, barriers, fences, and separating elements regarding horizontally applied loads. The standard’s author recommends that all barriers withstand test loads equivalent to horizontally applied loads of the magnitude given in Table A1 multiplied by a factor of 1.2, while for barrier foundations, this safety factor is 2.0.

The standard’s author also recommends that the location and arrangement of safety barriers and crowd guiding elements (e.g., for entry through turnstiles or gates) be designed so that possible horizontally applied loads do not exceed 5 kN/m, as a short-term load greater than 5 kN/m poses a risk of bodily injury to individuals directly adjacent to the barrier or other infrastructure element.

Work is currently underway on a further amendment to the aforementioned standards concerning safety in event venues.