Steel Road Plates & Trench Covers
HERMEQ steel road plates and composite trench covers carry pedestrians and vehicles over trenches, manholes and other openings in the ground while construction, utility and maintenance work continues beneath them. The steel range comes in three surfaces, plain, anti-slip and anti-skid, and the coated plates give tires and boots grip on construction and utility jobsites. Steel plates run in thicknesses up to 1 inch, and every one has a lifting eye in each corner. The LowPro composite trench covers are laid by hand for foot and vehicle traffic, and their high-visibility yellow finish makes the covered opening easy to see on site.
Steel road plates, trench plates and hole covers
The choice turns on the size and shape of the opening, the traffic that will cross it and whether the cover goes in by machine or by hand.
Plain steel road plates
Uncoated mild steel plates are the standard cover for trenches and excavations in roads, yards and active work zones, and they carry anything from foot traffic to heavy equipment. HERMEQ supplies plain steel road plates in several lengths, widths and thicknesses, and they are the usual choice where a plate also has to work as a temporary ramp or where traffic crosses in a straight line at low speed.
Anti-slip steel road plates
A coarse aggregate bonded to the top face gives boots and tires grip, which makes anti-slip steel road plates the choice where pedestrians walk across the plate or where it stays wet for days. They come in the largest choice of sizes in the steel range, including smaller square plates for narrow trenches.
Anti-skid steel road plates
A resin and bauxite coating gives these plates the grip that traffic needs when it brakes, turns or pulls away on the steel. Choose anti-skid road plates for public roads, intersections and work zone crossings where vehicles meet the plate at speed.
LockNLift steel road plates
LockNLift steel road plates carry the same anti-skid surface and add a center lifting point to the corner eyes. They suit highway and utility crews who lift, move and replace plates every shift.
Modular composite road plates
Interlocking inner and end sections build a trench crossing to the length the job needs, and two people lay it without a crane or forklift. Modular composite road plates are the choice where trucks must cross a trench in a street or compound that a lifting machine cannot reach.
Composite trench covers
Low-profile glass reinforced composite covers bridge narrow utility trenches by hand, with no bolts and no lifting gear. The LowPro 11/11 trench cover is made for foot traffic across sidewalks and public crossings on telecom, fiber and utility work. Where carts and light vehicles also cross, the LowPro 12/8 composite trench cover carries them over the same trench width.
Driveway trench boards
Boards made for residential drives carry the wheels of cars and delivery trucks over a service trench, so the owner keeps access to the property during utility work. The driveway trench cover board grips the surface with flexible edges and in most cases needs no bolting. The plastic driveway board sits on PVC skirts and has fixing holes for jobs where it can be secured to the ground.
Sidewalk trench boards
A sidewalk trench board keeps a walkway open across street works and is light enough for one person to lift and reposition. The Tuff Tread sidewalk trench board is molded plastic with anti-trip edges and a high-visibility yellow finish for public-facing jobs.
Steel hole covers and temporary manhole covers
Square steel hole covers close off holes, pits and chamber openings so debris cannot fall in and the surface stays safe to cross. For an open manhole, the temporary manhole cover is a lightweight polymer cover that drops into the opening and takes site vehicles across it, and it replaces timber boards and heavy steel lids between service phases.
Steel or composite road plates
Steel is the right choice for live roads, heavy trucks and any opening that needs a large plate, provided the crew has an excavator, crane or lifter on site to place it. Steel plates come in the largest formats in the range, and the same plates go back into use from one job to the next.
Composite is the right choice when the crew places covers by hand without lifting equipment: sidewalks, driveways and urban utility work, where a machine cannot reach or would block the street. Composite also carries truck traffic: the modular composite road plates are rated up to 48.5 tons over a 27.6 in trench.
A single street job often needs both materials, with steel plates over the trench in the travel lane and composite covers where the same trench runs under the sidewalk or across a driveway.
Steel plates on the road, sidewalks and driveways
Utility and excavation trenches across live roads
Traffic at road speed brakes, turns and accelerates on the plate, and every axle pushes it sideways and works at its edges. A coated steel surface keeps tires gripping in the wet, and fixing each corner stops the plate walking out of position and the clatter that carries to nearby homes at night.
Sidewalks and pedestrian crossings
The people crossing are the public, including wheelchair users, parents with strollers and people who do not notice the cover until they step on it. A low profile and tapered or flexible edges keep the trip at each side small, and a high-visibility finish marks the covered trench in daylight and under street lighting. Short crossings over hoses and small openings are covered by the pedestrian trench covers and foot ramps range.
Residential driveways
Loads arrive through single wheels, from the household car to delivery and service trucks, and the cover has to take them every time the drive is used. Finished concrete, asphalt and pavers on a homeowner's drive are rarely drilled, so boards that hold by their edges or skirts suit this work.
Jobsite entrances and construction pads
Loaders, excavators and trucks turn on the plate as they enter and leave, which scours the surface and shifts a plate more than straight-line traffic does. Coated steel plates fixed at the corners suit this repeated turning. Where machines cross soft ground with no opening to bridge, ground protection mats carry them instead.
Road plate sizes, securing and lifting
Thickness and plate size
A thicker plate spans a wider trench and carries heavier wheel loads, so the trench width and the heaviest vehicle on the job set the gauge, and the thinner plates suit narrow trenches and lighter traffic. Steel hole covers are square and come in several sizes and gauges, chosen to the size of the void.
Opening width and load rating
Composite ratings are stated for a trench width, and some are for the whole vehicle while others are for a single wheel. The driveway trench cover board is rated for one wheel of a vehicle, so compare it with the wheel load of the heaviest vehicle using the drive. The LowPro covers are rated over a set trench span, so measure the opening at its widest point before choosing. An opening wider than any plate can span is a job for temporary bridges.
How the plate is held in place
Road plate securing collars are the usual fixing for steel: one collar goes through each corner lifting hole and locks with a bolt into a hole drilled in the concrete or substrate below, which stops the plate rocking and clattering. The collars come out by reversing the bolt and go back into use on the next plate. On asphalt, cold patch feathered around the plate edges eases wheels on and off. Flexible-edge composite covers sit without bolts where drilling is not allowed, and the temporary manhole cover locks into its opening with a key.
Lifting and handling
Steel plates are lifted by excavator or crane with chains hooked through the corner eyes, or with a magnetic lifter on the plate face. LockNLift plates add a center lifting point that takes a lifting adapter and a single-leg chain, so one chain lifts the plate from its center.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Steel plates cover a trench or hole that has to stay open between shifts, so traffic and pedestrians can use the road while the pipe, cable or excavation work beneath is unfinished. Plating lets a crew reopen lanes overnight and over weekends without backfilling the trench and digging it out again the next morning.
Road plate usually means a flat steel plate that carries vehicle traffic across a trench in a road. Trench cover is a wider term that includes steel plates as well as the lighter composite and plastic covers and boards made for sidewalks, driveways and utility crossings. Many listings use both names for the same steel plate.
Road plates are made from mild steel, the low-carbon structural steel used for most plate work, because it carries heavy wheel loads, takes repeated handling and can be cut and drilled. Steel hole covers are cut from the same mild steel plate.
Far enough that each edge bears on firm, undisturbed ground well back from the trench wall, where the soil will not break away under wheel load. Trench edges loosen the longer an excavation stays open, so check the bearing each time the plate is lifted and replaced. Where the local road authority sets a minimum, that figure governs.
The Tuff Tread sidewalk trench board and the plastic driveway board are made from HDPE and PVC and are fully recyclable at the end of their working life. The driveway board is itself made partly from recycled PVC.