Railings Alongside Fountain

[Phil B]

I have a covered walkway that runs alongside a site fountain. Are railings required If the distance between the top of the wall and bottom of the water containment area is less than 30"? I've seen plenty of instances where there are no railings alongside a water feature, see 2nd image below for an example.

 

[steveray]

Nope....Unless the top of wall is a walking surface....

 

[Yikes]

You didn't say where the project is located. In California, our state has modified ADAS Division 2 by adding the following:
11B-247.1.2.6 Reflecting Pools
The edges of reflecting pools shall be protected by railings, walls, warning curbs or detectable warnings complying with Sections 11B-705.1.1 and 11B-705.1.2.6.

In your case and in the photo provided, the wall of the pool functions as the warning curb for visually impaired users.

I have a friend who is 100% blind. This pool at Caltech makes him exceptionally nervous to walk around, I think he might have fallen in once at the inside corner at the bridge where his cane his concrete while his foot did not:

 

[Phil B]

You didn't say where the project is located. In California, our state has modified ADAS Division 2 by adding the following:
11B-247.1.2.6 Reflecting Pools
The edges of reflecting pools shall be protected by railings, walls, warning curbs or detectable warnings complying with Sections 11B-705.1.1 and 11B-705.1.2.6.

In your case and in the photo provided, the wall of the pool functions as the warning curb for visually impaired users.

I have a friend who is 100% blind. This pool at Caltech makes him exceptionally nervous to walk around, I think he might have fallen in once at the inside corner at the bridge where his cane his concrete while his foot did not:
View attachment 14890

My condition is in Florida, but even here I'd definitely put rails around the condition you show in your photos. I can't imagine your example was allowed to be built like that. Thanks for the insight!

 

[Mr. Inspector]

You didn't say where the project is located. In California, our state has modified ADAS Division 2 by adding the following:
11B-247.1.2.6 Reflecting Pools
The edges of reflecting pools shall be protected by railings, walls, warning curbs or detectable warnings complying with Sections 11B-705.1.1 and 11B-705.1.2.6.

In your case and in the photo provided, the wall of the pool functions as the warning curb for visually impaired users.

I have a friend who is 100% blind. This pool at Caltech makes him exceptionally nervous to walk around, I think he might have fallen in once at the inside corner at the bridge where his cane his concrete while his foot did not:
View attachment 14890

If you make them put a railing on the bridge, why would you not make them put a railing around the whole pool for the same reason?

 

[bill1952]

I'm struggling with 12" deep reflecting pool versus a pier or warf or seawall with much greater depth.

 

[steveray]

I'm struggling with 12" deep reflecting pool versus a pier or warf or seawall with much greater depth.

View attachment 14902

We should clearly require helmets and life preservers on everyone all the time...

 

[tmurray]

When I worked for a municipality we would regularly get people calling to complain about neighbours installing ponds and requesting we require them to install a fence. I pointed out the kilometers of waterfront we have as a community (bound on two sides by a large river, not to mention internal rivers and lakes) that was naturally un-fenced.

 

[tmurray]

We should clearly require helmets and life preservers on everyone all the time...

I was speaking with the CAO for my community about animal control. She joked that if we were concerned just about liability, we would not permit pets. I countered with we would be fine with pets, just not people.

 

[steveray]

I was speaking with the CAO for my community about animal control. She joked that if we were concerned just about liability, we would not permit pets. I countered with we would be fine with pets, just not people.

People do ruin everything.....The sooner we realize that and make a change the better....

 

[bill1952]

I was speaking with the CAO for my community about animal control. She joked that if we were concerned just about liability, we would not permit pets. I countered with we would be fine with pets, just not people.

Deportation? Send them to Canada, eh?

 

[Joe.B]

Bubble wrap...
Just sayin...

 

[Penguin87]

I'm struggling with 12" deep reflecting pool versus a pier or warf or seawall with much greater depth.

View attachment 14902

The ocean is in violation, and needs a 42" tall guardrail around every body of water in the entire world.

There are roughly 390,000 miles of coastline in the world, or 1.24 billion ft. At $600/linear foot, that would come out to $744 billion.

 

[steveray]

The ocean is in violation, and needs a 42" tall guardrail around every body of water in the entire world.

There are roughly 390,000 miles of coastline in the world, or 1.24 billion ft. At $600/linear foot, that would come out to $744 billion.

And the ocean is going to pay for it.....

 

[bill1952]

My photo btw was a lake. I'm guessing the $744b does not cover lakes, ponds, rivers, streams, canals, etc. But California will protect us from the reflecting pools.

 

[Yikes]

Notice in California it doesn't say all pools, or fountains, or lakefront, or ocean, it only says "reflecting" pools.
I have no idea of the backstory behind this particular issue. If I had to guess, maybe it's to prevent people with low vision acuity from getting confused as to the location of the hard walking surface?! Maybe the shadow at the lip of the pool gets some people confused for a border/edge? I don't know.