Barricades may not be the most exciting piece of equipment, but they're absolutely crucial tools for any site's safety management plan, and in many cases, may be required to meet various safety standards. For instance, among OSHA's many resources is a description of an employer's duty to help prevent accidents from falling. The OSHA document explains an employer's need for "Barricading the area into which objects could fall, prohibiting employees from entering the barricaded area, and keeping objects far enough from an edge or opening to prevent them from falling to a lower level." OSHA's resources identify many other occasions where different barricade types may be required as well.
But before we dive into the various barricade types and purposes, let's define what a barricade is. In conversational English, this often refers to a quickly constructed pile of readily available objects strictly to block someone from going where they want to go. However in the context of site safety, the definition is simpler, and there isn't a connotation of quick, haphazard construction. Simply put, barricades are structures put into place to obstruct a person's passage.
While this general purpose is straightforward, the specific applications in the world of safety management are numerous, and there are different barricade types for these different applications.
For instance, here are some of the most common barricade types, and their specific purposes