Roanoke, VA Building Safety: Scaffold & Sidewalk Shed (2026)

City Code § 30-6 governs any time a private construction, demolition or cleaning project needs to use public streets, alleys, sidewalks or other public ways, whether or not they are closed to traffic during the work. It specifically covers equipment operated in or over those public ways, or extended out over them, including elevators, cranes, derricks, scaffolds, framework, aerial platforms and hoists, along with similar equipment. No such operation may begin until the city manager issues a permit for it, and a single permit can authorize up to one year of work at a given location before it must be renewed.

Before the permit-holder can start work, the person directly responsible for the operation must file written evidence with the city clerk of standard-form public liability insurance from a company licensed to do business in Virginia. The policy has to cover personal injury or death for at least $100,000 per person and at least $500,000 per accident or occurrence, and property damage of at least $100,000, or a combined single-limit policy of at least $750,000. This insurance requirement sits on top of, not in place of, any other bond or security the Code requires elsewhere, such as the building-operations bond referenced at § 7-3. The city manager also has authority to write reasonable regulations governing how these operations are conducted so they do not endanger public health, welfare or safety, meaning a contractor working from a sidewalk scaffold can be held to additional site-specific rules beyond the base permit and insurance requirements.