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For a specifier, a walkway canopy is one of the most site-specific structures to obtain. There are many factors to consider for a walkway canopy, including the building interface, drainage, fire egress, measurements, and DDA compliance, all of which vary by site.
To help you understand what you need to specify a covered walkway canopy, we’ve created a guide to help you through this process, ensuring your project can operate smoothly from consultation to the final installation.
Quick Answer: What Is a Covered Walkway Canopy and When Do You Need One?
A covered walkway canopy is an open-sided roof structure, typically steel-framed with a polycarbonate, glass, or fabric roof, that creates a sheltered pedestrian route between or alongside buildings. They’re most commonly specified on school, hospital, university, and commercial campus sites where weather protection, DDA compliance, and operational continuity are required. Broxap designs, manufactures, and installs covered walkway canopies across the UK, with options including mono-pitch, duo-pitch, cantilever, and gullwing configurations.
What Is A Covered Walkway Canopy?
A walkway canopy is an outdoor structure designed to provide shelter for pedestrians, protecting them from rain, snow, and harsh sunlight. It normally features a roof that’s supported by posts or columns, providing a sheltered walkway between buildings or spanning across a site.
These structures are often made from materials including glass, polycarbonate, or fabric. The material is normally chosen to accommodate existing structures or fit with the site it’s built on, like a hospital or school.
Why Are Covered Walkways Specified on Schools, Hospitals, and Campuses?
When choosing your ideal walkway canopy, you’ll likely have a number of reasons as to why you need one manufactured for your site. The four core reasons for specifying a walkway include weather protection, accessibility and duty of care, wayfinding, and operational continuity.
Walkway canopies are almost always associated with weather protection, providing a route that is consistently covered to reduce slips and complaint volumes in wet conditions. This also ties into the accessibility aspect, where businesses must ensure there are level and sheltered walkways under the Equality Act 2010, especially where weather is concerned.
Covered walkways and canopies also create circulation routes on large sites, and help to provide operational continuity where certain sites cannot close during adverse weather. These help keep businesses running whilst providing ample routes for people to use as they move between areas.
How Do You Assess Span and Bay Requirements for Your Site?
Canopy-covered walkways are modular, with each bay adding to the overall length. There are key variables to consider for assessing span and bay requirements, including the distance between buildings, whether the route is straight or has directional changes, and building height (including single-storey and multi-storey buildings).
Sites with courtyards may need an L- or U-shaped run, and open-plan areas may require a custom layout. You should always conduct a site survey before finalising the bay count, as certain factors will affect this final number.
Polycarbonate, Glass, or Fabric: Which Roof Material Suits Your Project?
When considering the best material for your walkway canopy, you’ll first need to analyse your site and existing materials for other structures you may have. Some materials will suit certain sites better than others.
For instance, polycarbonate is the most common material for school canopies, due to its impact resistance, good light transmission, and lower cost.
On the other hand, glass is a premium option for healthcare and commercial sites, recommended for its better acoustics and higher clarity.
Fabric is also a good aesthetic choice for campuses and commercial sites, having a lower spanning ability and UV protection.
When considering the structural frame, steel is the most common choice for public sector sites due to its longevity and CE-marked structural compliance. However, if you require a more natural aesthetic for your walkway canopy, timber-framed options are available, which should hold an FSC Chain of Custody (CoC) certification to ensure environmental credibility.
Wall-Fixed or Post-Supported: How To Choose Your Connection Type?
Choosing the connection type will depend heavily on the site’s building structure capabilities. If it can accept additional load, then wall-fixed walkways can be built, using a building’s structure as support. Choosing a wall-fixed structure is also suitable if planning approvals are straightforward and ensure the building can accept the weight.
However, if wall-fixing is not possible, or the walkway bridges two buildings, post-supported walkways that are independent of a building are recommended. These structures may also benefit from a cantilever design to remove ground-level posts on one side, improving DDA compliance and reducing trip hazards.
Regardless of your connection choice, consulting a qualified engineer to assess structural loads during a site assessment is integral to health and safety compliance.
What Are The Surface Water Drainage Requirements For A Covered Walkway?
Covered walkways must follow certain requirements for appropriate drainage, including a roof runoff management system and ground-level water removal. Our walkway canopies feature:
- A roof pitch at a minimum of 2–5° rise to prevent ponding
- Gutter sizing that matches the roof area and local rainfall data
- A downpipe position coordinated with the paving below
- A connection to a compliant drainage system
Before any walkway canopy design is finalised, you should confirm drainage routes with your estate teams, especially if your site is a school or an NHS building.
Fire Strategy, Egress, and DDA: The Compliance Checklist For Covered Walkways
Any covered walkways or canopies must follow certain building standards in order to comply with fire safety and strategies. Consulting your site’s fire strategy document is required before fixing any walkway positions, but you should also ensure the measurements comply with fire safety regulations.
Fire exits (or egress) must have a minimum 1.5m clear width for shared pedestrian routes, or 1.8m for high-footfall NHS and campus sites. For DDA compliance and general accessibility, level or ramped approaches are required (max 1:20 gradient), as well as tactile paving at entry and exit points, and acceptable clearance height throughout.
Our walkway canopy structures are made up of structural steel, which carries CE Marking to ensure compliance with relevant structural safety standards.
Does a Covered Walkway Need Planning Permission?
Most covered walkways are attached to or associated with a non-domestic building, like a school, hospital or campus, meaning it normally falls outside permitted development rights.
Where planning permission is required, this is normally due to a walkway exceeding 3m in height at eaves level, being attached to a listed building, being within a conservation area, or connecting two buildings.
Before consultation and design, you must confirm with your local planning authority what is and is not allowed. Our in-house team at Broxap can provide structural and specification documentation to support a planning application if necessary.
How is a Covered Walkway Installed On A Live School or Hospital Site?
Some sites, like schools and NHS buildings, cannot close for installation as they need to operate either 24 hours a day or during specific times. With Broxap, we manage phased installation with site-specific method statements, working during out-of-hours or school holidays where needed.
Our installation team is the same team that designs and manufactures the walkway canopy, keeping out third-party subcontractors to reduce coordination risk on live sites. Our business is certified with Constructionline, CHAS, and
Alcumus SafeContractor accreditations, allowing our team to work with you and help complete your project whilst remaining compliant.
How To Select From Broxap’s Covered Walkway Range
At Broxap, we offer a variety of designs to choose from, including mono-pitch, duo-pitch, and cantilever canopy designs. You can also select the ideal walkway canopy based on the site and the purpose it serves, whether it’s a school, campus, or hospital site. You can also get in touch with our team to help you select the best suited canopy for your project, including materials and other specifications including the structural design.
We hold certifications that allow us to handle quality management across design, manufacturing, and installation, and even environmental management and occupational health (ISO 9001:2015, ISO 14001:2015 and ISO 45001:2018).
We have been manufacturing outdoor structures since 1946, including walkway canopies for schools, hospitals and campuses. Contact our expert in-house team for a free site survey and specification consultation.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a covered walkway canopy?
A covered walkway canopy is an open-sided roof structure that creates a sheltered route for pedestrians between buildings or across a site. These are typically constructed with a steel frame and a polycarbonate, glass, or fabric roof, covering walkways to protect users from bad weather and direct sunlight. Normally, they’re built on schools, hospitals, universities, and commercial campus sites.
What width should a covered walkway be?
The minimum width recommended for a covered walkway on a public site is 1.5m, which is sufficient for two people to pass and a wheelchair user to traverse comfortably. High-traffic routes on NHS and university sites should be designed to a minimum of 1.8m to avoid congestion. You must review the width requirements against the site’s fire strategy and DDA compliance obligations to prevent any future complications.
What is the difference between a wall-fixed and a post-supported covered walkway?
A wall-fixed covered walkway is supported on one side by an adjacent building wall and on the other by ground-level posts. In comparison, a post-supported walkway canopy uses posts on both sides and is structurally independent of any building, which is suitable where wall-fixing is not possible, or the walkway bridges two buildings. For improved DDA compliance and reducing trip hazards, building these structures with a cantilever design is recommended.
Can a covered walkway be installed on a live school or hospital site?
Yes, provided the contractor has appropriate method statements, risk assessments, and accreditations in place. School sites will require installation phased around term dates, whereas hospitals will require meticulous planning around clinical operations with clear separation of the construction zone from pedestrian areas. Contractors should hold the equivalent accreditations, like Constructionline or CHAS, as a baseline requirement for public sector site access.
What materials are covered walkway canopies made from?
Most walkway canopies use a hot-dip galvanised or powder-coated structural steel frame, combined with a polycarbonate, glass, or fabric roof. Polycarbonate is the most common choice for schools due to its cost-effectiveness and impact resistance. Glass is a preferred option for health care because of its superior clarity and acoustic performance. Fabric is also an option for campuses and commercial sites, providing UV protection and a lower spanning ability. Timber-framed walkways are also available if you require a more natural aesthetic.