The Sydney Marathon made history in 2025, hosting 35,000 participants and welcoming more than 300,000 spectators to the city in what is now the largest marathon event in the Southern Hemisphere. As the event celebrated its first year as an Abbott World Major, CATO Group was proud to play a pivotal role in ensuring its success, delivering a seamless mix of traffic control, security services, and hostile vehicle mitigation solutions across the 42km course.
Our client and event organisers, Pont3, engaged CATO to provide a solution to their crowd movement issue. CATO successfully implemented all of TCS Sydney Marathon’s Safety Course Crossings, more commonly known as London Crossings, within Sector 5A of the route.
A London Crossing is a pedestrian management solution used at major marathons and mass-participation events worldwide. It allows spectators to safely cross the course without disrupting the flow of athletes.
By delivering this solution for the first time in Australia, CATO Group became the first traffic management and security organisation to deploy London Crossings at an event of this magnitude, setting a new benchmark for traffic control services in Sydney and beyond. The system is implemented at strategic points along the route and managed by accredited traffic controllers and security guards who coordinate safe crossing intervals. London Crossings are used during large-scale events when spectator demand requires movement across closed roads while maintaining athlete safety and race integrity.
Alongside the pedestrian management strategy, CATO Traffic Control implemented a range of hostile vehicle mitigation (HVM) barriers for Transport for NSW. These temporary hostile vehicle mitigation devices created secure event zones, ensuring the safety of athletes, spectators, and key personnel. This marked the first year CATO provided traffic management for the TCS Sydney Marathon, following three consecutive years of delivering CATO security services. By integrating both traffic control Sydney expertise and security services Sydney, CATO reinforced its reputation as one of Australia’s leading traffic management companies.
In addition to traffic control, CATO Security deployed teams to provide asset protection at medical tents and live entertainment hubs across the 42km course. In the context of major events, asset protection ensures that critical infrastructure such as medical facilities, staging, and entertainment areas are safeguarded against disruption, unauthorised access, or security threats. CATO’s highly trained personnel monitored these locations throughout the event, providing peace of mind to organisers and ensuring uninterrupted operations.
Delivering safety and efficiency on this scale requires meticulous planning and multi-agency collaboration. In the months leading up to race weekend, the CATO Services team worked closely with local councils, NSW Police, Transport for NSW, event organisers Pont3, and other key stakeholders to design and execute a comprehensive traffic management and security strategy. One of the most significant innovations was the installation of the first pedestrian bridge on Macquarie Street, a project supported by CATO Security. This bridge proved to be a game changer, dramatically improving pedestrian flow near the finish line. Previously, crowd surges in this area created safety concerns and interfered with the smooth flow of athletes. With the new bridge in place, spectators could move freely and safely across the course without compromising race integrity.
From pioneering the use of London Crossings in Australia to delivering traffic control Sydney solutions and security services Sydney across one of the city’s largest-ever events, CATO Group demonstrated why it is an industry leader in traffic management, traffic control services, and hostile vehicle mitigation. As Sydney continues to grow as a destination for world-class sporting and cultural events, CATO Traffic Control and CATO Security stand ready to deliver safe, innovative, and reliable solutions. The Sydney Marathon’s historic debut as a World Major is proof that when it comes to complex, high-profile events, CATO Services set the standard.
Wanting to know more about our event services? Contact one of our dedicated account managers.
