Entry Control Facilities

Entry Control Facilities

Vehicle access control to military installations is a mandatory Department of Defense (DoD) requirement. The term "Entry Control Facility," or ECF, encompasses the overall layout, organization, infrastructure, and facilities of an access point. The term ECF is synonymous with Access Control Point; others commonly refer to ECFs as gates. Generally, the purpose of ECFs is to provide security by monitoring traffic entering installations.

Facilities

ECFs must balance security, safety, and traffic flow. If the facility is not designed with sufficient capacity, it will create extensive congestion and delays, waste time, increase transportation costs, and create safety concerns especially when traffic queues extend to public highways outside the facility. It is important to design an ECF to protect the guards, to provide sufficient time for the deployment of active vehicle barriers, to prevent unauthorized entry, to manage internal vehicle speeds, and to encourage motorist safety by applying accepted standards and by using standard traffic control devices.

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