WHAT ARE INGRESS, EGRESS, AND EMERGENCY ACCESS?

Understanding the way in is only part of understanding the way out.

By Bea Byline | Life of a Sardine™

Ingress describes how vehicles enter a property or development. Egress describes how they leave. Together, the terms help explain how a proposed development connects with the surrounding road system.

Emergency access is different. It is a route intended to provide access for emergency response. A plan may identify an emergency connection that is not intended for ordinary daily traffic.

When reading a site plan, begin by locating each access point. Look at where it connects to an existing road and how the connection is labeled. A line on a drawing may represent a regular entrance, an emergency connection, or another type of access. The label and accompanying notes help explain its intended use.

Then look at the dimensions. The width of a right-of-way is not necessarily the width available for vehicles to travel. Roadway and travel-lane dimensions may appear elsewhere on the plans. Curves and turnarounds may also be shown. Those details help describe the proposed design, but interpreting their adequacy may require the applicable standard or review by a qualified professional.

Plans can also change during development review. An access shown on an earlier drawing may appear differently on a later version. A connection may be revised or its intended use may change. When you find a difference, resist the temptation to decide why it happened.

Instead, ask: What do the records show changed?

Check the dates on the plans and compare the revisions. Review comments or agency correspondence may provide additional information about the change. The final approved plans can then show the configuration that ultimately became part of the approval.

Emergency access deserves particular care because a drawing alone does not establish that a route is suitable for every emergency vehicle. Questions about required widths, turning movements, or other technical standards should be answered from the applicable records and authoritative sources.

The useful question is not simply, “Is there another way in?”

Ask instead:

What type of access is shown, and what do the records say about how it is intended to function?

Then follow the record forward.

Document. Fact. Unanswered question. Next record.

Nothing to see? Hold my pencil.

BEA BYLINE

Life of a Sardine™