Sheffield United Footbal Club
The Problem:
Following a review by the new Safety Officer at Bramall Lane Stadium in Sheffield, a range of safety issues were identified with the historic Traffic Management Plans for the surrounding road network which makes up what is known as Zone X, the spectator footprint outside the venue used to get people in and out.
Additionally, the incoming Protect Duty (following the Manchester Arena terrorist attack) requires all crowded space venues to conduct a full Counter-Terrorism assessment of all aspects of the management of Zone X on Match Days.
The Safety Officer needed to put in place Chapter 8 compliant Traffic Management systems along with a hardened approach road to deter a terrorist attack by vehicle. This also had to include enhances arrangements for access by Emergency Services in the event of any major incident.
The Challenge:
Bramall Lane Stadium, home of Sheffield United FC and with a capacity of 32,000, is located directly onto major roads taking vehicles in and out of Sheffield City Centre. This means that any closure or changes to this road network can have significant impact on the traffic across the city.
We had less than less than two weeks’ notice to create a new Traffic Management Plan that provided protection to all spectators arriving and departing Zone X outside the stadium and then deploy a team of Traffic Managers, Supervisors, Traffic Management Operatives and Traffic Management stewards to implement and oversee the Traffic Management Plan.
The new Plan had to be flexible, dynamic and allow rapid changes depending on evolving incidents or situations. This had to not just account for the incoming Protect Duty but all the normal traffic and public order issues at a major sports stadium.
All measures had to be agreed by the Sheffield City Council Highways team, Police and entire Safety Advisory Group (SAG) prior to the first deployment.
Our Solution:
Our Event Operations Managers immediately commenced site visits and planning which resulted in an abridged Traffic Management Plan for the stadium delivered in 2 days following being awarded the contract. This plan allowed Sheffield United’s Safety Management Team to consider new approaches in how accredited vehicles arrive and depart the stadium to protect spectators, which were fully approved.
Our recruitment team worked on upscaling our recruitment in the Sheffield area. We already cover many events and venues across Yorkshire so had an excellent pool of local staff, but we wanted to increase this in line with our policy of being able to staff at least 200% of any client requirement in case of short notice additional client requirements.
This enabled us to have double the deployment on the first day, at no cost to our client, allowing our existing Traffic Management Stewards to buddy up with a newer member of staff to help train and support them.
Staffing from the communities we deliver our services in is very important to us as it helps boost these areas and enables our staff to be able to give excellent customer service such as accurately directing people to offsite locations / routes.
Our signage team, at our Silverstone Circuit office, designed and manufactured a wide range of specialist signage to support the deployments within a very tight window following the creation and approval of the Traffic Management Plan.
We also deployed Hostile Vehicle Mitigation systems on the key approach roads to the stadium, a first for Bramall Lane.
Following some tweaking and additional deployments over the 2021-2022 season, the plan has now matured and provides a high level of protection for the spectators in Zone X around Bramall Lane, whilst also ensuring business and resident access is maintained. We have just been awarded a new contract for the full 2022-23 season.
Services Deployed:
ü Traffic Management Planning
ü Event Directional Signage
ü Road Closures & Diversion Routes
ü Police Accredited Traffic Officers (PATOs)
ü Traffic Management Stewarding
ü Hostile Vehicle Mitigation
ü Parking Suspensions
ü Emergency Services Access Routes