Duluth, MN Building Safety: Scaffold & Sidewalk Shed (2026)

Section 45-22 sits in Article II of Chapter 45, the same article that requires a city engineer permit before anyone places a scaffold, obstruction, equipment or materials in, upon or above a public sidewalk, street, alley or highway under Sec. 45-15. Once a scaffold or excavation is authorized, Sec. 45-22 requires the permit holder to erect a suitable guard or fence around it sufficient to keep persons and animals from falling in, and to keep objects from falling off the scaffold onto pedestrians below. The section is explicit that no machinery, equipment, materials or scaffolding may be placed or stored outside the fencing, and that no work, including unloading or storing materials, may happen outside the fenced area.

When the city engineer determines it is necessary, the permit holder must also build a protected pedestrian walkway along the fencing to separate foot traffic from vehicles and from anything that might fall. Sec. 45-22 folds into the broader excavation and obstruction rules of Article II: the city engineer sets barricading and warning-device standards by regulation, filed with the city clerk, and can amend them with 30 days' notice under the same section. A permit holder who fails to fence or barricade a scaffold as required gives the city engineer authority to erect the barricades directly and bill the cost back to the permittee. The rule traces to Ordinance No. 6857 from 1951, with enforcement language added by Ordinance Nos. 7580 and 7603 in 1967.