Foot Ramps & Trench Covers
HERMEQ supplies trench cover boards, pedestrian walk boards, foot ramps and site access products for safe movement in and around active work areas. They are used on temporary works, street works and utility maintenance wherever open trenches or uneven surfaces put pedestrians and site staff at risk.
Our pedestrian trench covers span open excavations with anti-slip surfaces and anti-trip edges. The range continues through driveway boards rated for a vehicle wheel to composite and steel plates for carriageway traffic. The footway boards are light enough to place by hand, go down quickly and cut trip hazards in public and controlled-access areas, and the range is held in permanent UK stock with nationwide delivery.
Footway boards, driveway boards and trench plates
The range divides by what has to cross and how wide the gap is: footway boards carry foot traffic, driveway boards take a car or van wheel, composite and steel plates carry carriageway traffic, and handrailed trench bridges take over where the excavation is wider than any board will span.
Pedestrian trench covers and footway boards
These are the pedestrian walk boards laid over the narrow cable, fibre and service trenches dug along pavements, footpaths and site walkways, sized for excavations of around 700mm. The steel-reinforced plastic trench cover and the Tuff Tread footway board are moulded polyethylene boards for gangs that lift and relay covers as the work moves along. The LowPro 11/11 trench cover and the LowPro 12/8 trench cover are thin GRP boards for busy footways where a low step onto the cover matters most. Choose one of these when nothing heavier than foot traffic will cross.
Driveway trench cover boards
A driveway board keeps a property's vehicle access open while a service connection is dug across it, and it is the board to choose wherever a car or van will drive over the trench. The most common wrong buy in this range is a pedestrian board laid across a drive, because footway boards are rated for people on foot and not for a wheel load. The driveway trench cover board and the driveway board are both rated to take the wheel of a car or light van. If lorries or plant will cross, move up to composite road plates.
Composite road plates
Composite road plates carry HGV traffic across a carriageway excavation without the crane or lifting gear that steel needs, because they are built from interlocking modules that two people lay by hand. The 44 tonne composite road plate suits narrower trenches, and the LowPro 23/05 safety plate carries the same traffic across trenches up to 1200mm wide.
Steel trench cover plates
Steel plates are the choice for haul roads, site entrances and carriageway openings that heavy plant crosses repeatedly over weeks or months. Plain steel trench cover plates are the general-purpose format, and road plates with chamfered edges give wheels a smoother, quieter transition on and off the plate on busy roads. For long, straight excavations, the rectangular steel trench cover plate follows the line of the trench. The full steel and composite selection sits in our road plates range.
Trench bridges with handrails
Once an excavation is wider than any board or plate will bridge, or deep enough that a fall would cause injury, a handrailed walkway takes pedestrians across. The railed trench bridge and the aluminium trench bridge fold flat between jobs. The Passerelle temporary bridge spans up to 6 metres for ditches, drainage channels and deep service trenches. Larger crossings and site stairs are in our trench bridges range.
Plastic, GRP and steel trench plates
Material decides how a cover is handled and where it performs best. Steel-reinforced HDPE, used in the plastic trench cover and the polyethylene footway boards, is lifted by one person, does not splinter or rust, and is fully recyclable at the end of its working life, which suits utility gangs moving covers along a footway every day.
GRP composite gives the thinnest profile in the range, so the step onto the board stays low for pedestrians and wheels, and the LowPro covers add a flexible edge that grips the ground around the opening.
Steel comes in the largest sizes and thicknesses and is the material for repeated heavy plant movements, although every plate has to be placed with a crane, excavator chains or a magnetic lifter through its corner eyes. A plain finish suits vehicle-only crossings. Where people walk or vehicles brake and turn on the plate, choose anti-slip road plates with a coarse bonded aggregate surface or anti-skid road plates with a resin and bauxite coating.
Trench width and fixing
Trench span
Measure the excavation at its widest point, including any length where the edge has broken away, and choose a cover rated for that width with firm, undisturbed ground bearing on both sides. A cover resting on loose spoil or a crumbling edge can rock under load, so cut back to sound ground or move up to a larger cover. Each product page states the trench width that its load rating applies to.
Bolting down or laying loose
Boards with fixing holes, such as the plastic trench cover and the driveway board, are bolted into asphalt or concrete, which suits covers left in place for several days or on routes with heavy footfall. Flexible edge covers in the LowPro range lie loose and, in most cases, grip the surface without fixings, so they are the choice on block paving, brick and decorative surfaces where the owner will not allow drilling. Steel plates under traffic are held with road plate collars to stop them creeping under braking wheels and vibration.
Kerb ramps, manhole covers and pipe crossings
A covered trench is one part of a pedestrian diversion: the route also has to leave and rejoin the kerb, pass open chambers safely and, on some jobs, cross pumped pipework, and HERMEQ stocks the products for each of these alongside the boards.
Kerb and wheelchair ramps
Where a diversion takes a footway onto the carriageway, a ramp at each kerb keeps the route usable for wheelchairs, pushchairs and trolleys. The wheelchair kerb ramp and the portable wheelchair ramp fit standard kerb heights and are moved by one person. The kerb access ramp is a compact chevron-tread ramp for trolleys and site access, and threshold and container ramps are in our ramps range.
Temporary manhole covers
An open chamber left between service phases needs a cover that the public can walk over and site vehicles can drive across. The temporary manhole cover drops into the opening and locks with a key so it cannot be displaced, and it replaces timber hole covers and heavy steel lids on reinstatement work and roadworks.
Pipe road ramps
When over-pumping or dewatering takes water or sewage across a road, the water and sewage pipe road ramp carries the flow through a low steel ramp rated for vehicles up to 70 tonnes. The road stays open without a dug crossing, and the ramp connects to the hose couplings in common use on pumping work.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between a trench cover and a road plate?
A trench cover is a board for footways and driveways, sized for narrow utility trenches and rated for pedestrians or a light vehicle wheel. A road plate is built for carriageway traffic up to HGVs and is made in steel or as a modular composite system. Choose by the heaviest load that will cross the trench.
Do trench cover boards meet street works standards?
The Tuff Tread footway board is stated as meeting HAUC standards for trench covers, and the LowPro 15/10 driveway trench cover board is designed to street works regulations. The driveway board and the LowPro 23/05 safety plate are certified to BS 7976 for slip resistance. The standard that applies to each cover is listed on its product page.
Can trench cover boards be joined to cover a long trench?
The composite road plates are modular, with inner sections that interlock and end sections that finish the run, so they cover a trench of any length. Footway and driveway boards are laid butted together, each with firm bearing on both sides of the excavation.
Can wheelchairs and pushchairs cross a trench cover?
Footway boards carry wheelchairs and pushchairs as pedestrian traffic, and their bevelled or flexible edges keep the step on and off the board low. The railed and aluminium trench bridges include a fold-down ramp for wheelchair and pushchair users.
Can trench covers carry a company logo or colour?
The plastic trench cover and the Tuff Tread footway board can be embossed with a company logo. Both can also be produced in custom colours in place of the standard high-visibility yellow, the plastic trench cover on large orders.
Is a trench board the same as a trench sheet?
A trench sheet is a different product, a steel sheet set vertically against the sides of an excavation as part of trench support. A trench board or trench cover board lies flat across the top of the opening so people or vehicles can cross it, and this range covers that job.