Australian Standard AS1657-2018

Angles and Slopes

• For a level platforms or landings it should have a maximum slope in any direction between 0° to 3°.
• Sloping walkway with an angle nominally between 3° and 20° in the direction of travel and no more 0° to 3° perpendicular to the direction of travel. (It is possible to have cross slop up to 7° for specific applications)
• Where the angle of slope of the walking surface is between 10° and 20°, cleats are required to be fitted to the walkway. Cleats shall be of metal, not less than 10 mm × 10 mm and evenly spaced.

Flooring

• For grating and expanded metal flooring, the smallest dimension of any opening shall not exceed 45 mm and the area of any opening shall not exceed 5000 mm2.
• Any gap between adjacent floor grates shall be ≤10 mm. variation in height between adjacent floor grates shall be ≤5 mm.
• If there is a chance of material falling onto people below, additional protection is required. No aperture in the protection shall permit the passage of a 15 mm diameter ball. (e.g. 12 mm square mesh). fixed beneath the platform, walkway or landing.

Load rating

• Platforms and walkway shall have a minimum live loading of 2.5 kPa and minimum point loading of 1.1 kN applied on 100 mm × 100 mm pad.

Guarding requirements 

• Guardrail is required where it is not safe to step or stand outside the walkway without risk of falling.  This could be for a number of reasons; step down too large (typically more than 300mm), slope of the adjacent area too steep (typically more than 12°), adjacent area too narrow (typically less than 2000mm wide) or surface not suitable for walking.

Dimensions

• The clear width of a walkway without edge protection shall be not less than 600 mm. Where guardrails are installed on both sides of a walkway a minimum of 550 mm clearance is to be maintained.
• For stair landing; the width of the landing shall not be less than the stairway width.
• Most landing length shall be and have and shall provide standing space ≥600 mm clear of cross-traffic, door swing or any other structure.
• For ladders landing length shall be ≤900 from the front of the ladder.

Headroom

• Minimum headroom is typically 2000 mm, this may need to be increased if helmets are worn. In applications where the minimum headroom cannot be achieved, other measures should be taken, Such as signage, padding and highlighting.