Evans Road: Face-Mounted Edge Protection Around a 9-Metre-Deep Pit

Sometimes the edge-protection challenge is not simply how to put a barrier around an edge. It is how to protect that edge without getting in the way of the next stage of construction. That was the problem at Evans Road in Cranbourne West, where a Tier 1 civil contractor needed temporary edge protection around a pit approximately nine metres deep.

The surrounding concrete works were still progressing. The floor slab needed to be poured right up to the edge of the pit, which meant a conventional top-mounted solution could have interfered with the work. Drilling new fixings into newly poured concrete was not an attractive answer either. The project needed a system that could protect the exposed edge, remain clear of the slab pour and work with the structure that was already being built.

The solution was a face-mounted NON-DRILL edge-protection system connected to embedded M16 ferrules. For us, this project illustrates something much bigger than a clever bracket. The best edge-protection solution is often the one that works with the construction methodology rather than forcing the construction methodology to work around the handrail.

The Project Challenge

The Evans Road works sit within the broader Cranbourne West development area in Victoria, a major mixed residential and employment precinct. The City of Casey describes the Cranbourne West Precinct Structure Plan as covering approximately 783 hectares and providing for substantial residential and employment development.

On this particular site, the immediate engineering challenge was considerably more specific. Workers needed protection around a deep pit while construction continued around it. At the same time, the floor slab needed to extend up to the pit edge. That created an important constraint.

If posts were fixed on top of the concrete at the perimeter, they could occupy precisely the area where the slab construction needed to continue. The answer therefore could not simply be: “Put a standard handrail around it.” The connection method had to be considered as part of the construction sequence.

Move the Connection Off the Working Surface

Following consultation with the contractor, the temporary-works team developed a face-mounted version of the NON-DRILL system. Instead of fixing posts down through the horizontal concrete surface, the system attached to M16 ferrules embedded in the vertical face of the concrete. That changed the geometry of the whole arrangement.

The edge protection could remain in place around the pit while the floor slab was poured towards the edge, because the connection itself was no longer occupying the top working surface. It also meant new post-installed holes did not need to be drilled into the recently poured concrete for the edge-protection posts.

That mattered for more than one reason. Avoiding that drilling step reduced the need to carry out another concrete-processing task at the edge, avoided introducing additional drilled fixings into the finished concrete and allowed the protection methodology to work with the sequence of the permanent works. This is exactly why NON-DRILL believes the connection deserves to be treated as an engineering decision rather than an installation afterthought.

The Access Problem Had to be Solved as Well

Protecting the perimeter was only part of the job. Workers also needed access down into the pit. The face-mounted system was therefore developed with custom gates that could integrate with the temporary stair access down to bench level.

That matters because edge protection and access should not be designed as two unrelated systems. A beautiful handrail arrangement is not terribly useful if somebody then has to dismantle half of it every time they need to get through. The gate, stair access and edge-protection arrangement needed to work together.

Again, the lesson is broader than the particular hardware. Temporary works work best when the interfaces are designed together.

Why the Ferrule Connection Mattered

The embedded M16 ferrules provided a defined connection point for the face-mounted posts. That avoided the need to arrive later and determine where new holes could safely be drilled around an active pit. But we would not describe that as “ferrules make the installation compliant”, because that misses the point.

The ferrule is only one component. Its location, capacity, concrete, post configuration, loads, edge-protection geometry, access arrangement and installation methodology all form part of the complete system. This is another good example of the NON-DRILL principle we have been talking about:

Compliance is a System, Not a Sticker.

A component can have the right paperwork and still be used incorrectly. A properly considered edge-protection methodology looks at how the components, connection, structure and work sequence interact. That was particularly important here because the protection had to perform around a nine-metre-deep excavation while allowing construction immediately adjacent to it to continue.

What Changed on Site

The face-mounted arrangement meant the temporary edge protection could stay clear of the top surface while the slab works progressed. Site crews mounted the posts to the embedded M16 ferrules and installed the access gates as part of the temporary-works arrangement.

According to the original project account, procurement and pre-assembly were coordinated with the construction programme, with installation support and ongoing training, inspection and maintenance available throughout the construction phase.

There is an important distinction here. We don't have verified project data showing “X hours saved” or “Y dollars saved”, so we shouldn't manufacture an ROI number for the sake of a stronger headline.

What we can say is what the methodology demonstrably changed: It avoided new drilled post fixings for this installation, kept the edge-protection connection off the slab working surface and allowed the protection and access arrangement to remain compatible with the continuing concrete works.

For a Project Engineer, that is the useful part of the case study.

The Bigger Lesson: Sometimes the Best Place for the Post is Not on Top

Temporary edge protection tends to be pictured as posts installed vertically onto the top of a slab. But construction does not always present a convenient horizontal surface that can be occupied by temporary works.

Pits, culverts, bridge structures, retaining structures, precast elements and other civil works can all present situations where the top surface needs to remain available or where the construction sequence makes a conventional fixing awkward. The Evans Road project shows why it is worth considering the orientation and location of the connection, not just choosing a different post.

If suitable connections can be engineered into or identified on the vertical face of the structure, a face-mounted system may provide another way to protect the edge without obstructing the working surface above.

That doesn't make face mounting the answer to every project. It simply gives the temporary-works team another option. And in construction, having the option before the programme is under pressure is usually much more useful than discovering it afterwards.

Design Temporary Works Around the Permanent Works

There is a tendency to think of temporary works as things that have to fit around whatever the permanent structure happens to become. We think the better approach is more collaborative. If the project knows it will need edge protection, access or other temporary systems, those requirements can be considered alongside the permanent works while there is still time to influence the detail.

At Evans Road, embedded ferrules created a connection that allowed temporary edge protection to coexist with the next stage of slab construction. That is a very simple idea. But it illustrates the kind of thinking we would like to see happen earlier on more projects.

Instead of asking: “Where can we drill the handrail in?”

ask: “Where should the edge protection connect so that the permanent works can continue?”

Those two questions can lead to completely different solutions.

A Note on Current Standards

The original Evans Road project material referenced AS/NZS 4994.1:2009, which was the previous edition of the general requirements for temporary edge protection. That edition has since been superseded by AS/NZS 4994.1:2023.

For any current project, the edge-protection system, connection, installation and temporary-works methodology should therefore be assessed against the current applicable Standards, engineering requirements, WHS obligations, project specifications and approvals.

NON-DRILL should never be treated as a substitute for that project-specific assessment. The product gives the project team a different way to solve the connection problem. The engineering determines whether it is the right one.

Where Else Could Face-Mounted Edge Protection Make Sense?

The most interesting thing about Evans Road is not that we solved one unusual pit. It demonstrates a broader design principle.

Where a project needs the horizontal surface to remain clear, where drilling new post fixings is undesirable, or where an existing or planned vertical connection can form part of the temporary-works design, face-mounted edge protection is worth considering early.

That could include deep pits and excavations, concrete walls and culverts, bridge and civil structures, precast installations and other applications where the construction sequence makes traditional top-mounted protection difficult.

The detail will change from project to project.

The question remains the same: Can we design the edge-protection connection to work with the structure instead of working around it later?

The Evans Road Lesson

The nine-metre pit made the risk obvious. But the most useful lesson from the project is about something less dramatic: coordination.

The edge protection needed to keep people separated from the fall risk. The slab needed to be poured. Workers needed access into the pit. And the temporary system needed to remain compatible with the permanent construction. The face-mounted NON-DRILL solution allowed those requirements to be considered together.

That's what good temporary works should do.

Protect the edge without creating the next problem.