Road Plates
HERMEQ road plates let pedestrians and vehicles cross open trenches and excavations safely while sitework, utility and road work carries on. The steel range covers plain, anti-slip and anti-skid road plates and trench cover plates in thicknesses up to 1 in. Every steel plate has a lifting eye in each corner, so it can be set and moved by magnet or chain. For sidewalks, driveways and residential streets, the range adds high-visibility yellow composite and plastic trench covers. These covers are rated from foot traffic up to vehicle wheel loads, and crews lay them by hand.
Steel trench plates, composite covers and hole covers
The range divides into three groups: steel plates that are set by machine, composite and plastic covers that crews lay by hand, and covers made for holes and manholes.
Plain steel road plates
The standard cover for a trench or excavation in a traffic lane, on a haul route or on a construction pad is a plate with a plain steel face. HERMEQ plain steel road plates come in several sizes and thicknesses. Where vehicles brake on the plate or people cross it in wet weather, one of the textured lines below gives more grip.
Anti-slip steel road plates
A coarse bauxite aggregate bonded to the top face gives tires and boots grip in rain and mud. The anti-slip steel road plates run from small square plates for minor openings up to full-size plates for lanes.
Anti-skid steel road plates
These carry a resin-bonded bauxite coating, the same kind of grip as the anti-slip line, and come as full 4 ft by 8 ft plates. The anti-skid steel road plates are made for trench plating on streets and in highway work zones, where traffic brakes, turns and accelerates across the steel.
LockNLift steel road plates with built-in lifting points
The LockNLift steel road plate is an anti-skid plate with lifting points at the corners and in the center. Choose it where plates are lifted and reset often, such as a trench that is opened each morning and plated over each night.
Modular composite road plates
Interlocking inner and end sections make up the composite road plates, which cover a trench under truck traffic without any steel to lift. Choose them for truck crossings on utility and municipal work where no lifting equipment is on site.
Composite trench covers for foot traffic and light vehicles
Two low-profile composite covers handle narrower utility cuts. The LowPro 11/11 pedestrian trench cover is for sidewalk and crosswalk openings that carry foot traffic. The LowPro 12/8 trench cover also takes carts and light vehicles, so it is the one to pick where a cut crosses a parking lot aisle or a site entrance used by vans.
Plastic sidewalk and driveway boards
The Tuff Tread sidewalk trench cover is a board for pedestrian routes past utility and street work, and one person can carry and place it. For vehicles, the plastic driveway board carries a car or light truck across a narrow cut at a property entrance. The composite driveway trench cover board spans a wider cut under one wheel of a car-weight vehicle, so choose it when the excavation across a driveway is wider than a standard utility trench.
Steel hole covers
A hole is a different job from a trench, because the cover has to bear on all four sides of the opening, and a square plate does that. HERMEQ steel plate hole covers come in several sizes and gauges. They stop debris falling into a pit, valve box or small excavation and give a stable surface over it.
Temporary manhole covers
The temporary manhole cover drops into an open manhole and locks with a turn key, so passing traffic cannot shift or flip it, and one person can lift it into place. Use it between service phases on paving restoration, road work and building pads, in place of timber boards or a heavy steel cover laid loose over the shaft.
Steel or composite road plates
Steel is the choice for plating a full traffic lane under continuous truck and heavy equipment traffic. Composite or plastic is the choice wherever the crew needs to lay the cover by hand. Steel plates are large and heavy, so an excavator, loader or crane sets them, and once down they form a solid deck under every axle that crosses.
Composite and plastic covers go down without lifting gear. The modular composite road plate is laid in sections that two people can carry, with no crane or forklift, and a run is lengthened by interlocking more inner sections.
Road plates for streets, sidewalks and utility trenches
What matters on each job depends on who and what crosses the plate.
Roads and highway work zones
On a live street, the plate has to keep its grip and its position under braking, turning and accelerating traffic. Textured steel is the usual choice there, and every plate is secured so it cannot creep.
Sidewalks and pedestrian crossings
For foot traffic, the edges count for as much as the load rating, because a cover that sits proud of the sidewalk with a square lip is a trip hazard. The composite and plastic covers use beveled or flexible edges that meet the surrounding surface.
Driveways and property entrances
A trench across a driveway has to carry the owner's car and any service or delivery truck that uses the entrance. The owner's surface matters too, since few owners want anchors drilled into pavers or fresh asphalt. The driveway boards grip with flexible edges or skirts, and in most cases they need no bolting.
Utility, telecom and fiber trenches
Fiber, cable and service connections often open a cut for a day or two at each location. The cover has to go down quickly, come up quickly and travel to the next site on the crew's truck. Lightweight composite covers are carried and placed by hand at each stop and reused from job to job.
Trench plate sizes, thickness and span
Once the type is settled, four checks decide the cover for a particular cut.
Trench width and bearing
A plate carries its load into the ground on either side of the cut. It has to reach past any loose, broken or undercut edge and sit on firm, undisturbed ground at both sides. Each composite and plastic cover is rated over a stated trench width, and that width is its limit. Where the walls of the cut will not stand on their own, support them with trench sheeting and sheet piles or other excavation and shoring equipment before the plate goes on.
What crosses the plate
Match the cover's listed rating to the heaviest wheel or vehicle that will cross it, not the typical one. The listings state ratings in different ways: as foot traffic, a single wheel, a vehicle weight or a spot load. Compare covers by the same measure, because a board rated for one wheel of a car and a plate tested under heavy trucks are made for different crossings.
Steel plate thickness
Thicker steel deflects less under the same load, so heavier traffic and wider cuts call for heavier plate. The range runs up to 1 in thick.
Plate size and layout
Full-size plates cover traffic lanes, square plates cover small openings, and modular composite sections cover long, narrow runs. Lay rectangular plates with the long side across the trench for the most bearing on each side, and butt neighboring plates tight so there is no gap at the joints.
Lifting and securing road plates and trench covers
The lifting gear and fixings differ between steel plates and composite covers, and both are settled before the first plate goes down.
Lifting steel plates
A permanent magnetic lifter holds a plate without power, in sizes rated up to 4,400 lb. Chains can also go through the corner lifting eyes, and the LockNLift plate takes its own lifting adapter. Composite and plastic covers have handles or lifting points for placing by hand.
Holding plates in place
Road plate securing collars pass through the lifting holes and bolt into a hole drilled in the concrete or substrate below, one at each corner, which stops the plate rocking and clattering. The modular composite road plate locks with integrated drop pins and has pre-drilled anchor points for longer installations.
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Frequently Asked Questions
HERMEQ steel road plates, trench plates and hole covers are made from mild steel, a low-carbon structural steel. The anti-slip and anti-skid plates use the same mild steel under their textured coating, so the surface you choose does not change the plate beneath it.
They are the same product. Road plate, trench plate, steel plate, traffic plate and trench cover plate are all names the trade uses for a steel plate laid over a trench or excavation so that traffic can cross it. Trench cover on its own more often means a lighter composite or plastic cover for sidewalks, driveways and narrow utility cuts.
The rules for plates left on a public street are set by the city or county that issues the street permit, usually in its standard specifications for public works construction. The City of San Diego, for example, requires trenches to be backfilled or trench-plated at the end of each work day. It also requires an asphalt ramp around each trench plate to keep the plate from being dislodged, and it sets further rules for traffic plate bridging.
Road plates are made to bridge an opening, and they bear on firm ground at the edges of the cut. To surface soft ground for a haul road, a site entrance or a laydown area, use ground protection mats or timber mats. Mats spread vehicle loads across a wide area and are laid in long runs over the surface.
The plastic sidewalk and driveway boards are recyclable. The Tuff Tread sidewalk board is made from HDPE and PVC, and the plastic driveway board is made from high-density polyethylene and recycled PVC.