International Code Council

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1 Page 1 of 7 International Code Council ICC edition Committee Actions Report for Committee Actions taken at the March 9th, 2011 meeting The ICC Standard Development Committee for Bleacher Safety (IS-BLE committee) met in March 2011 to consider public comments that were submitted on the First Public Comments Draft of the ICC 300 Standard dated January 5, 2011 (revised). This is a report of the committee actions taken at the meeting. ICC 300 Committee Actions Report meeting

2 Page 2 of 7 IS-BLE 4-10/11- public comment ICC 300 Section Proponent: Greg Nicholls, City of Mason, Ohio Further revise the section as follows: Fire Protection. Fire protection systems shall be provided where required by the building code. Exception: An emergency voice/alarm communications system for outdoor bleachers and grandstands installed in accordance with NFPA 101 shall be permitted. 1. An emergency voice/alarm system is not required for outdoor bleacher-type seating provided all of the following are met: 1.1. The bleachers and/or grandstands have an occupant load of 15,000 or less; 1.2. A public address system is provided; 1.3. Enclosed spaces attached to the bleacher-type seating comprise, in the aggregate, 10% or less of the overall area of the bleacher-type seating or 1,000 square feet, whichever is less. Spaces under the bleacher-type seating shall be separated from the bleacher-type seating in accordance with Section of the International Building Code All means of egress from the bleacher-type seating are open to the outside. 2. An emergency voice/alarm system is not required for outdoor bleacher-type seating with an occupant load or 300 or less. 3. An emergency voice/alarm system is not required for outdoor bleacher-type seating that have no attached enclosed spaces and are erected for a period of 120 days or less. Reason: Mr. Gene Boecker made an earlier and reasonable attempt to limit fire alarm systems for outdoor bleachers and grandstands. The January 2011 ICC 300 draft instead contains a reference to NFPA 101, which does not apply a rational and reasonable solution. For exception 1, a fire alarm system is not required for outdoor-only bleachers and grandstands, with their egress outdoor-only. Any hazard condition that originates with the outdoor areas is not hidden from the occupants, but gives them instant and complete awareness of the situation. A fire alarm system s task is to give early warning to occupants, but the fire alarm system will actually take longer to initiate action from the occupants, since someone who has already seen the hazard needs to find and then activate a manual station. In other words, the alarm in this condition serves no constructive purpose. With bleachers and grandstands without any attached enclosed spaces, where would the manual pull stations even be located? A public address system would assist in calming the assembly crowd, and instruct the occupants to the exits. At events with over 300 people, there are typically security and or organizing personnel who could inform those controlling the public address system of the hazard conditions and give them instructions for orderly use of the exits. This is what already occurs when high winds, lightning, etc. requires evacuation at these outdoor venues. Should the hazard condition originate in the small, attached spaces (whether under-bleacher or next to them), they will be separated from the bleachers by 1-hour construction per the IBC (code change E142-09/10 to Section ). The limit of 15,000 occupants was chosen to correlate with the smallest figure in Table 404.5(3) ICC 300 for outdoor smoke-protected seating. The limit of 1,000 square feet for the attached enclosed spaces correlates to the requirement for sprinklers for any over that size in Section of NFPA 102 and Section IBC. For exception 2, the limit on 300 matches the figure from NFPA 101 (Section ), NFPA 102 (Section 906.1) and the IBC (Section ) that exempts fire protection systems, including fire alarms. This would be consistent with the current ICC 300 draft language. Please note that if NFPA 101 were to be added as a reference standard by ICC 300, it would need the formal edition reference noted. ICC 300 Committee Actions Report meeting

3 Page 3 of 7 For exception 3, the exemption from any fire protection systems is only for outdoor, temporary bleachers and grandstands, where it is not feasible to have the permanent devices and connections. This also proposes to reduce the limit for consideration as temporary from 180 days to 120 days to cover a season for any typical sport without going for half a year. Committee Action: Approved as modified. Committee Modification - Replace the public comment with the following: Fire Protection. Fire protection systems shall be provided where required by the building code. Exception: An emergency voice/alarm communications system for outdoor bleachers and grandstands installed in accordance with NFPA 101 shall be permitted. 1. An emergency voice/alarm system is not required for outdoor bleacher-type seating provided all of the following are met: 1.1. The bleacher-type seating have an occupant load of less than 15,000; 1.2. A public address system with standby power is provided; 1.3. Enclosed spaces attached or immediately adjacent to the bleacher-type seating comprise, in the aggregate, 10% or less of the overall area of the bleacher-type seating or 1,000 square feet (92.9 square meters), whichever is less Spaces under the bleacher-type seating shall be separated from the bleacher-type seating in accordance with Section of the International Building Code All means of egress from the bleacher-type seating are open to the outside. 2. An emergency voice/alarm system is not required for outdoor bleacher-type seating with an occupant load of 300 or less. 3. An emergency voice/alarm system is not required for temporary outdoor bleacher-type seating providing all of the following are met: 3.1. There are no enclosed spaces under or attached to the bleacher-type seating; 3.2. The bleacher-type seating is erected for a period of less than 180 days; 3.3. Evacuation of the bleacher-type seating is included in an approved fire safety plan. Committee Reason: Modifications for each exception were as follows: Item 1.1: The term bleacher-type seating is used throughout the section to address bleachers, grandstands and folding and telescopic seating. This is consistent with other sections of the standard. The occupant load will now dovetail with the 15,000 or greater requirement for captioning on audio announcements in 2012 IBC Section Item 1.2: In situations where the public address system will make the occupants award of the need to evacuate, the stand-by power requirement will help ensure that the system will always be available. Item 1.3: Spaces that are immediately adjacent to the seating provides the same level of hazard to the egress as enclosed spaces that are attached. New Item 1.4: Item 1.3 was split in half since it had two requirements Item 3: These types of bleacher systems might be installed for special events which could be over several blocks, such as parades, therefore, rather than limit numbers of occupants, there are alternative means to reduce possible hazards to occupants. The exception should be stated in parts for clarity. Item 3.1: Not allowing enclosed spaces under or attached to the temporary bleachers would reduce the chance of a fire load under the bleacher seating. Adjacent was not included since these bleachers might be installed along the front of existing buildings. Item 3.2: The IBC uses the term temporary to apply to structures erected for less than 180 days; the ICC 300 should be consistent. Item 3.3: Special events will typically have a fire safety plans to allow for fire department and emergency vehicle access if there was an emergency during the event. Evacuation of the bleachers should be considered as part of this plan. This would include possible notification of occupants for emergency evacuation (i.e., notification by police announcements from a police vehicle). ICC 300 Committee Actions Report meeting

4 Page 4 of 7 The ICC 300 committee agreed that providing specific criteria for outdoor bleacher seating for voice/alarm systems would provide a clearer understanding of what was required than a general reference to NFPA 100. The system could be used for fire evacuation, as well as other outdoor specific emergencies, such as a lighting storm or a tornado. Item 1 should address most high school style football bleachers. Item 2 should address small bleachers in areas such as little league fields or smaller high school venues. Item 3 should address special events where portable bleachers are brought in, such as parades of county fairs. IS-BLE 9-10/11- public comment ICC 300 Sections 407.4, (New), (New) Proponent: Dan Victor, INTERKAL, LLC Further revise text as follows: Single access. For rows of seating served by aisles or doorways at only one end of the row, the minimum clear width of 12 inches (305 mm) between rows shall be increased by 0.6 inch (15.2 mm) for every additional seat beyond seven seats where seats have backrests or beyond ten where seats are without backrests. The minimum clear width is not required to exceed 22 inches (559 mm). The path of egress travel, however, shall not exceed 30 feet (9144 mm) from any seat to a point where a person has a choice of two paths of egress travel to two exits. Where one of the two paths of travel is across the aisle through a row of seats to another aisle, there shall not be more than 24 seats between the two aisles; and the minimum clear width between rows for the row between the two aisles shall be 12 inches (305 mm) plus 0.6 inch (15.2 mm) for each additional seat above seven in the row between aisles. 1. For smoke-protected assembly seating, the row length limits for a 12-inch-wide (305 mm) aisle accessway, beyond which the aisle accessway minimum clear width shall be increased, are in Table In smoke-protected assembly seating, the path of egress travel shall not exceed 50 feet ( mm) from any seat to a point where a person has a choice of two paths of egress travel to two exits Path of egress travel. For rows of seating served by only one path of egress travel, the common path of egress travel shall not exceed 30 feet (9144 mm) from any seat to a point where a person has a choice of two paths of egress travel to two exits. 1. In smoke-protected assembly seating, the common path of egress travel shall not exceed 50 feet ( mm) from any seat to a point where a person has a choice of two paths of egress travel to two exits. 2. For areas serving less than 50 occupants, the common path of egress travel shall not exceed 75 feet ( mm) from any seat to a point where a person has a choice of two paths of egress travel to two exits Path through adjacent rows. Where one of the two paths of travel is across the aisle through a row of seats to another aisle, there shall not be more than 24 seats between the two aisles; and the minimum clear width between rows for the row between the two aisles shall be 12 inches (305 mm) plus 0.6 inch (15.2 mm) for each additional seat above seven in the row between aisles. Exception: For smoke-protected assembly seating there shall not be more than 40 seats between the two aisles and the minimum clear width shall be 12 inches (305 mm) plus 0.3 inch (7.6 mm) for each additional seat above seven in the row between aisles. ICC 300 Committee Actions Report meeting

5 Page 5 of 7 Reason: The current text has several requirements combined, so that it is confusing as to what portion the exceptions are applicable to. It should be separated for clarity. In comparing the requirements to NFPA 101 Section and and IBC Section and it was also noted that there were additional allowances for travel distance for areas with less than 50 occupants (see Section Exception 2) and access through adjacent rows for smoke-protected seating (see Section Exception). These should also be allowed for bleacher design. Committee Action: Approved as modified by the public comment and further modified by the committee. Committee Modification: Path through adjacent rows. Where one of the two paths of travel is across the aisle through a row of seats to another aisle, there shall not be more than 24 seats between the two aisles; and the minimum clear width between rows for the row between the two aisles shall be 12 inches (305 mm) plus 0.6 inch (15.2 mm) for each additional seat above beyond seven where seats have backrests or beyond ten where seats are without backrests in the row between aisles. Exception: For smoke-protected assembly seating there shall not be more than 40 seats between the two aisles and the minimum clear width shall be 12 inches (305 mm) plus 0.3 inch (7.6 mm) for each additional seat above beyond seven where seats have backrests or beyond ten where seats are without backrests in the row between aisles. (portions of the public comment not shown remain unchanged) Committee Reason: The modification was for coordination with the allowances in Section The separation of requirements will add clarity. The coordination with IBC for small seating areas is appropriate. IS-BLE 18-10/11- public comment ICC 300 Section Proponent: Dan Victor, INTERKAL, LLC Further revise text as follows: Minimum aisle width. The minimum clear width of aisles shall be as follows. 1. Forty-eight inches (1219 mm) for aisle stairs having seating on each side. Exception: Thirty-six inches (914 mm) where the aisle serves less than 50 seats. 2. Thirty-six inches (914 mm) for aisle stairs having seating on only one side. Exception: Twenty-three inches (584 mm) between an aisle stair handrail and seating where an aisle does not serve more than five rows on one side. 3. Twenty-three inches (584 mm) between an aisle stair handrail or guard and seating where the aisle has a mid-aisle handrail. ICC 300 Committee Actions Report meeting

6 Page 6 of 7 4. Forty-two inches (1067 mm) for level or ramped aisles having seating on both sides. 1. Thirty-six inches (914 mm) where the aisle serves less than 50 seats. 2. Thirty inches (762 mm) where the aisle does not serve more than 14 seats. 5. Thirty-six inches (914 mm) for level or ramped aisles having seating on only one side. Exception: Thirty inches (762 mm) where the aisle does not serve more than 14 seats. Reason: I believe the exception under item one should not be allowed. Per item number one, this applies to a stair with seating on both sides. Per a mid-aisle handrail is required in this situation. Per item number 3, a minimum of 23 inches is required between the rail and the seating on each side is greater than the 36 minimum allowed by the current exception. I believe this text may have been mistakenly copied from the item 4 exceptions. The 36 minimum is allowable under item number 4 because the aisle is not stepped and a mid-aisle handrail is not required. The current text in ICC 300 Section now matches 2012 IBC Section as revised by E143-09/10. In the 2009 IBC handrail provisions, , the handrail can be in the middle or on one side. To meet item #3 in , a designer could put the handrail on one side if I served less than 50 seats. So a question would be if the interpretation for ICC 300 Section 409.1, would allow for a mid-aisle handrail to be on one side of an aisle. Worst case for capacity 50 x is inches. Another possible alternative would be to add an exception to ICC 300 Section as follows: Required Handrails. Where seats are located on both sides of an aisle stair, a minimum of one mid-aisle handrail shall be provided. Where seats are located on one side of an aisle stair, a minimum of one handrail shall be provided on the side of the stair where there are no seats. 1. A handrail is not required for an aisle stair serving a single row of seating. 2. The mid-aisle handrail is permitted to be on one side of the aisle when the aisle serves less than 50 seats. Staff note: While IS-BLE 16-10/11 did revise Section 405.2, the change was to Item 2, not Item 1, therefore, this proposal is considered outside the scope of IS-BLE 16-10/11. Committee Action: Approve as modified Committee Modification - Replace the proposal with the following: Required Handrails. Where seats are located on both sides of an aisle stair, a minimum of one mid-aisle handrail shall be provided. Where seats are located on one side of an aisle stair, a minimum of one handrail shall be provided on the side of the stair where there are no seats. 1. A handrail is not required for an aisle stair serving a single row of seating. 2. The mid-aisle handrail is permitted to be on one side of the aisle when the aisle steps serves less than 50 seats. ICC 300 Committee Actions Report meeting

7 Page 7 of 7 Committee Reason: The allowance for the handrail to be on one side of the 36 aisle will allow adequate width in the aisle and provide handrails for the aisle stairway. Use of the term mid-aisle handrail will still allow for the breaks in the handrail for access to the seats. This will be consistent with allowances in the IBC for assembly seating. ICC 300 Committee Actions Report meeting