A Better Way to Create Handicap Parking Bollard Signs

Originally posted at slowstop.com

Introduction

Parking lots throughout the nation are required to have adequate parking space for handicapped and disabled drivers by law due to the Americans with Disability Act.  Proper signage must be displayed reserving these spaces.  This often leads to increased cost in designing parking lots as well as significant maintenance due to damaged sign posts.

Background

There are two main types of parking spaces reserved for the disabled.  The first is the "strip mall" type which are parking spaces directly in front of building access.  These are either perpendicular with the bulding or angled in.  Sometimes the handicap placard is mounted to a building column, but more often a simple signpost or bollard signpost embedded in concrete is used.  Sometimes the building curb can act as a car stop to avoid damage to the sign.  The second type is found in an open parking lot, usually closest to the building, but seperated by a travel lane.  Again, a sign post or bollard sign post is used to mount the placard, however a concrete car stop is almost always needed to avoid damage to the sign post.

Problems

When designing facilities needing these signs, the main difficulty with traditional signs is one of cost and coordination.  Bollard signs are more effective than plain signposts, due to increased visibility as well as sturdiness, however their cost is more and they also require either pre-pouring the bollard, or coring the concrete after it has cured to place bollard.


The main problem that owners and facility managers have with these signs is constant damage from bumps and impacts.  Even when a car stop is provided, some vehicles have longer overhangs which can reach the signs and damage them.  Repairs are often costly, requiring the hiring of a parking lot repair company to dig out an old sign and replace with a new.  The addition of car stops where none exist can also be expensive.

A Better Solution

Thanks to the new SlowStop Rebounding Bollard system, a solution has arrived that can solves the issues of high up-front cost and repeated maintenance.  The SlowStop Bollard system is a steel bollard with an energy absorbing elastomer hidden inside.  When impacted, the bollard gives about 20 degrees before locking solid.  This decreases damage to the bollard and sign, to vehicles impacting the bollard, and to the concrete it is attached.  The SlowStop Handicap Parking Bollard Sign system is also very simple to install, requiring only a hammerdrill and an impact wrench to surface mount to concrete.  Once this is done, the bollard is filled with concrete mix to hold the sign pole in place, and installation is complete.

Advantages

This system has several cost advantages.  First off, on a concrete surface, no coring is needed to place the sign.  This eliminates coordination with a concrete contractor as well.  Second, no car stop is needed, as the bollard acts as its own car stop.  The system is flexible, and can accommodate custom sign placards.  It can also be moved easily if needed.

More Durable, Less Expensive

See detailed product information HERE. 

Proper Bollard Spacing

Originally posted at:  www.slowstop.com

We're often asked if we have any recommendations for bollard spacing.  Obviously this is a complicated question, as it depends on numerous factors, such as where the bollards are used, for what purpose, and what is the expected traffic around the bollard.  In this article I won't discuss security rated bollards, because I believe this is a science to itself that requires careful engineering and is not appropriate for a blog post.

The most important consideration for most other application will be whether or not pedestrian traffic is expected in the area, and whether or not the area is a potential emergency exit route.  The Americans with Disabilities Act often conflicts with the desired safety and security needs of the bollard spacing designer.  Spacing of bollards in any area where pedestrians might need to traverse needs to be a minimum of three feet to allow for wheelchair ingress and egress.  Four feet apart is a more common practice to allow extra clearance.  Remember to consider any objects that extend from the bollard, especially with some architectural, removable, and lighted bollards.  The three foot minimum should be between the farthest extensions of the bollard.

When protecting a utility or other object that does not require pedestrian egress, spacing can be much closer if desired.  This usually depends on the expected mass and speed of vehicles travelling in an area when compared to the strength of the bollard.  Here your most important consideration is speed of the vehicle.  Remember that energy is function of mass times speed squared, meaning that as speed increases, energy increases rapidly.  Spacing bollards tighter together, or even connecting them with cross bars, will increase the strength of the barrier.  As a rule of thumb, if the spacing between the bollards is less than twice the impact height on the bollard, strength of the bollards will double when impacted together.

An common application of this principle is the horseshoe or u-bollard, most often seen protecting fuel pumping stations.  A typical automobile vehicle bumper height is in the range of 17"-19".  Given this, in order to double the strength of the bollard, the two vertical elements should be placed roughly 34"-38" apart.  Of course the size of the fuel pumping island will impact whether or not this is feasible.

If automobile traffic is your main consideration, bollard spacing should be no more that five feet apart.  Even the smallest automobiles available will be prevented from entering at this spacing.  If fork lift or other industrial vehicles are the vehicles to be denied access, consider the width of the thinnest vehicle to be stopped and ensure that your bollard spacing is tighter than that vehicles' width.

Loading docks often use bollards to prevent trucks from impacting the building outside of the loading dock bumpers.  Standard US bays have bumper plates that have an outside dimension of  96".  This matches the outside width of most trailers and shipping containers.  Give a 6" gap on either side and space loading dock bollards 9' apart (inside dimension).  One special type of bollard, the rebounding bollard, can often be used to act as a bumper due to the fact that it gives upon impact, slowing the truck into postion.

As a final note, you should also consider the need to allow emergency vehicle access to an area.  If this is required, you may need to have at least on area with a wide spacing, or at a minimum, a removable bollard that can be quickly removed in order to allow for emergency access to an area.

Ideal Applications for Traffic Bollards: Warehouses and Industrial

This post is the last of a five part article dealing with types of bollards and their ideal uses.  This post will discuss bollard use in industrial manufacturing plants as well as warehouses.

Pedestrian Protection

No matter the work setting, anywhere that moving vehicles have the potential to injure workers and guests alike, adequate protection is required.  Simple safety training of fork lift operators, delivery truck drivers, and plant personnel is often not enough to ensure pedestrian safety.  Accidents with heavy vehicles are often catastrophic and require additional safeguarding to protect people from injury.  A line of bollard or bollard fencing in high traffic area is key.  It is also especially important to protect operators and workers in areas where they may not be able to see oncoming traffic, such as when performing work related tasks.  Break areas are another important area to consider as workers are often inattentive while on break.

Many businesses choose to use surface mounted steel plate bollards in these applications, as the speeds of vehicles is often low and this is adequate to stop incidental contact with forbidden areas.  Cored or embedded bollards can leave a factory owner with a Swiss cheese plant floor, especially given the flexibility required of the modern factory.  But because welded plate surface mounted bollards can quickly come loose and fall into disrepair, rebounding type bollards are recommended for their ability to absorb impact and avoid damage and lost truck loads.  These can also be used to assist in proper positioning, as it is acceptable to use them as a positive stop without a jarring impact of a traditional bollard.

Loading Docks and Doors

It’s no secret that warehouse loading dock areas take a beating.  Delivery trucks are very large and very heavy, and maneuvering them can be difficult even for the most experienced driver.  In order to protect building walls, loading ramps, and high bay doors, savvy warehouse managers install strong bollards to protect their facilities from damage due to repeated low speed impacts from heavy vehicles.

Related to this is the interior plant doorway made for vehicle traffic.  An inattentive driver can strike the interior walls causing a potentially dangerous situation, especially for a cinder block wall.  Bollards strategically placed in the doorway just inside the wall opening can prevent this sort of damage and save the plant from costly repairs.

Pallet Racks

One of the most common workplace fines issued by the Occupations Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) is for damaged pallet racks.  Pallet racks are subject to damage because of the large frequency of use by forklifts loading and unloading product.  The slightest impact can damage structural uprights and compromise the load integrity of the rack systems.  There are many devices on the market to protect pallet rack uprights such as cushions and guards, but the most effective is arguable a well-placed bollard.   Corners are an especially important area to protect as forklift can clip the end of the rack cutting a turn.  These tend to be lighter bollards in the 3” class as speeds tend to be low.

Equipment and Automation

Industrial equipment and automation can be quite expensive, not to mention critical to plant operations and business revenue.  It is imperative that such equipment is protected from vehicle traffic to eliminate the possibility of completely avoidable downtime.  Safety fencing is often used to protect personnel from entering dangerous equipment operations areas, but bollards or bollard fencing can serve a dual purpose of prohibiting access from both workers and vehicular traffic.  It is not uncommon to see expensive automation equipment surrounded by a line of bollards with W-rail attached along plant aisle ways.  At other times, simple bollard protection to keep vehicles away from delicate personnel safety fencing may be adequate.

Conclusion

In these days of hyper competitive business environments, the costs from unnecessary interruption to operations from vehicle accidents are intolerable.  Further, the safety of employees is a major goal of most companies.  When viewed from that perspective, the installation of protective bollards throughout industrial operations is imperative and has become commonplace.  Business owners and operations managers should carefully consider areas of vehicle traffic, and especially areas that can be prone to damage or injury.

This post concludes our look at ideal bollard applications.  Although not all inclusive of the many uses of traffic bollard, we have performed a comprehensive look at the most common installations.

Ideal Applications for Traffic Bollards: Drive-Thrus

This post is part four of a five part article dealing with types of bollards and their ideal uses.  Today I’ll discuss various drive-thru applications where bollards are often found protecting equipment and personnel.

Banks and ATMs

Perhaps the most obvious use for protective bollards is at the traditional bank drive through teller.  These areas have expensive equipment and are usually narrow lanes, requiring protection from drivers who might struggle to get close enough to the machine.  More recently, all banks have installed drive through automated teller machines (ATM) with similar requirements for protection.  These machines are sometimes stand-alone within a parking lot, and because of the large amount of cash held inside, need to be protected from “crash and grab” robberies where a criminal might ram the machine in order to dislodge it and potential haul away the entire machine.  Strong bollards are key in these instances.

Drive-Thru Restaurants

Fast food restaurants with drive up windows must protect several areas.  First is the ordering speaker and menu board.  Damage to either can temporarily close an important source of revenue if the restaurant cannot take drive through orders.  Second is the building and teller window.  Often a turn is needed by a driver to approach the restaurant window to both pay and receive food.  Because the driver must reach out the window for these tasks, he usually attempts to be as close to the building as possible, increase the risk of damage.  Bollards play an important role in protecting both the physical building and the teller window from accidental impact.  These are often large (6” diameter and relatively tall) steel bollards.

Outside Eating Areas

Restaurant owners that chose to maintain outdoor eating areas need to consider the protection provided for their patrons against an errant vehicle.  This is especially critical in areas adjacent to roadways, but is also important when near parking areas.  Simple wrought iron fencing is not enough to prevent potentially life threatening injuries should a drive lose control of his vehicle.  Often due to aesthetic considerations, large concrete planters are chosen to provide protection, but architectural bollards can also be used.  In either case, the protection should be professionally engineered to provide adequate protections from potential risks.

Guard Shacks and Payment Shacks

Common to public parking lots and garages is an entrance and exit guard shack, usually manned, designed to house a single teller.  Because this is usually the only access point for the secured area, it must be protected from both accidental and intentional ramming.  Strong bollards are used throughout these areas to protect both the occupant and adjacent areas where automatic payment machines might be located.  In the case of a post-tensioned concrete structure, surface mounted bollards may be required to avoid damage to structural concrete.  In this case, rebounding bollards may be the best choice as they can provide more strength that a simple steel plate surface mounted bollard.

Automatic Car Washes

The automatic car wash is a special sort of drive through area with delicate equipment that needs to be protected at all cost.  A car wash with damaged equipment often makes no money while waiting for repairs.  Modern car wash facilities have automated drive up teller machines that need bollard protection.  The entrance and exit of the car wash itself also needs to be protected as drivers attempt to align their vehicles to the tracks and exit the wash.  Speeds are generally expected to be slow in these areas, so often surface mounted bollards can be adequate.  Relying on plastic warning cones, however, is not recommended.

Conclusion

Adequate protection for employees, customers, and expensive equipment is of critical importance for businesses that operate drive through areas.  Failure to provide adequate protection can lead to lost revenue and risk injury to people.  In such cases, bollards are an indispensable safety device.

In the next and last installment of this article, we’ll look at a completely new application for bollards, that being in the industrial setting where forklift protection is an important consideration.

Retail Store Safety - Crash Prevention

Retail Store Safety - Crash Prevention

Ideal Applications for Traffic Bollards: Parking Lots

This post is part three of a five part article dealing with types of bollards and their ideal uses.  So far I've discussed typical types of bollards, and ideal applications in traffic denial.  Today I’ll discuss typical parking lot bollards, which also includes traffic denial but is more specific to the parking lot itself.

Introduction

There are many assets within a parking lot that need to be protected from the errant driver.  Though parking lot speeds are assumed to be lower than other applications, driver mistakes such as driving forward instead of reverse (or vice versa), contribute to accidental impacts.  The lack of curbing or faded lane striping also contribute to drivers short cutting corners or avoiding driving lanes altogether.   This presents the need to protect certain areas from vehicles, usually cars and light trucks.

Utility Protection

Often shopping centers or other locations require dedicated fire hydrant, gas meters, electrical panels, or other utilities that are located in or near the parking lot.  For obvious reasons, these utilities need to be protected, usually on all sides, from potential accidental impact.  In the gas of natural gas lines, it is of special importance that the area is well protected by strong bollards because of the potential of fire or explosion from impact.

Overhead Signs

Many businesses have overhead signs mounted to large posts near the street.  These posts as well need to be protected from errant vehicles that could potential cause damage significant enough to topple the structure.  Embedded bollards are used when there is danger of catastrophic damage.  However, less expensive surface mounted or rebounding bollards are also used when the danger is less severe and the purpose is to avoid occasion damage.  This is also done at times with large light posts or electronic information signage.

Corners / Entrance Driveways

Malls, grocery stores, and convenience stores are move a great deal of product, and need delivery trucks to frequently re-store their wares.  These trucks need to make wide turns an often accidentally cut corners which can lead to damage to buildings, landscaping, and driveway surfacing.  Lack of curbing within parking lots also contributes to the propensity for drivers to cut lane corners, leading to more potential damage.  Bollards can be used at these corners to prevent these short cutting drivers from damaging important assets.  These can be embedded in the landscaping areas or on the driving surface at the edge of a turn.

Parking Signs

A unique but common application of the bollard is as a protective device for sign posts.  The Americans with Disabilities Act mandates handicap parking spaces and appropriate signage.  Many companies also create preferred parking spaces, such as “employee of the month”, which need signage to identify the space.  However signs in the middle of a parking lot can take many bumps which eventually bend and break the sign.  A bollard can be used in lieu of or in conjunction with a wheel stop to prevent vehicles from impacting the sign post.  The bollard does this through increased conspicuity and a psychological desire not to impact a more foreboding object by the driver.

Recharging Stations

Becoming more popular is the addition of electric vehicle recharging stations which involves especially expensive equipment that must be protected from damage.  This is a similar application to an air fill station that might be found in a gas station.  A couple well placed bollards in front of the equipment is a smart investment.

Access Prevention

A common use of bollards is to prevent access by vehicle to areas intended only for pedestrians.  This could be a small access alley or a restaurant eating location just off the parking lot.  Whenever pedestrian safety is at risk, it is important to adequately protect them from potential run-away vehicles.  A simple decorative gate is simply not enough.  When aesthetics are especially important, architectural bollards are often used, or in lieu of those, large concrete planters can serve the purpose of a bollard if specifically designed for that purpose.

Ice Shacks / Small Out Buildings

It’s not uncommon to find small out building in a strip-mall.  These are often “ice shacks” or small drive-thru building such as an ATM, mailbox, or DVD rental.  Because these areas are in the middle of travel areas of a parking lot, protection around them is desirable and usually occurs in the form of a “picket fence” of bollards completely surrounding the building.

Parking Garages / Public Parking Lots

Public parking garages nearly always have toll shacks or other revenue equipment that require protection from errant vehicles.  Should the station be manned, it is especially important to use strong protective bollards to guard the area.  One case that is unique, however, is the addition of bollards in post-tensioned concrete structures.  The tendons which keep the concrete in compression are extremely important and cannot be damaged by drilling or coring into the structure.  When adding any of the numerous bollards found in a typical parking structure, care must be taken not to damage the tendons.  As well, the bollard should be designed with a shear point either in the anchors used or in the bollard itself, such that upon impact, the structural concrete is not damaged, which could lead to a catastrophic failure of the building.  For this reason, surface mounted bollards are more often used in post-tensioned concrete applications.

Failed Structural Concrete Building

Conclusion

Bollards are used throughout parking lots for numerous reasons.  It’s not uncommon for new parking lot construction to contain scores of bollards and bollards signs throughout various areas.  Proper design and placement of bollard decrease damage to assets and protect pedestrians.

In the next two parts of this article, we’ll look at the following to areas of interest:

Drive-Thru Lanes

Factories and Warehouses

Ideal Applications for Traffic Bollards: Traffic Denial

This post is part two of a five part article dealing with types of bollards and their ideal uses.  Last post discussed four main types of bollards:  embedded, surface-mount, rebounding, and retractable/removable.  In this post and the next three I’ll discuss ideal uses as follows:

1. Traffic Denial (today)
2. Parking Lot Protection
3. Drive-Thru Lanes
4. Factories and Warehouses

Traffic Denial

Although all bollards are used for some sort of traffic denial, this category covers uses that purposely deny access for safety or damage reasons, and are not covered by a more specific use that is described in another area of concern.  In other words, these are general uses.

Security Bollards

This is the grand-daddy application for the traffic denial bollard.  Often K-rated (meaning tested to certain government standards), these bollards are used to absolutely deny access to a building.  This has seen large increase in popularity since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.  Government buildings and other high value targets use engineered bollard systems to prevent high speed, high mass vehicles from causing mass harm initiated by ramming through building fronts.

Building Protection

Bollards are often used to protect a building or structure for damage.  Building corners are a typical place bollards are found, especially when a tight turn by a vehicle can actually impact the building.  Self-Storage facilities often use a large number of bollards to protect buildings from vehicles, and often, trailers.

Building Columns

Closely related are sets of bollards placed around a building or roof column to prevent vehicular impact, which could lead to catastrophic damage should a column fall.  These bollards are often embedded or rebounding type because of the importance of protecting the column.

Store Fronts

Many store owners worried about “crash and grab” robberies, or even just worried about driver mistakes, will line the front of a store with bollards to prevent access.  This application has the added benefit of protecting patrons while they walk in and out of the facility.  The tighter the picket, the more protection offers as a vehicle is likely to impact multiple bollards at once.

Gates

Many security gates and use bollards to protect keypad access panels as well expensive mechanical equipment that operates the gates.  Keypad panels must be closely approached by a driver to enter access codes, and therefore need to be protected from driver mistakes.  Often far ends of a gate system will be protected by bollards to prevent damage to motorized equipment, critical pivots, and weak points that might allow a vehicle to ram a gate.  Sometimes these will be simple surface mounted bollards if the security needed is not great.  A large bollard is usually enough to keep a driver from approaching a sub-division access panel too closely.   An unattended storage facility might need a sturdier bollard to prevent night time theft by ramming a gate.

Pedestrian / Bike Paths

This is an application of traffic denial where the path is not intended for vehicles so bollards are used to block off the entrance or exit of the path.  Pedestrians and bicyclists can pass between a set of bollards, however a car or truck cannot.  These will often be simple embedded wooden bollards, but on a busier street might be a steel bollard.

Gas Pump Protection

This is such a common sight, that you probably don’t even notice the bollards, but virtually every modern gas station protects its pumps from vehicles through the use of bollards or very large cements islands (a form of bollard).  These are often embedded into the concrete, for obvious reasons, as accidents with the highly flammable gasoline delivery device would make for a bad day.

Propane Storage

Many convenience and home improvement stores offer propane bottle exchange programs.  For safety reasons, the propane bottles are stored outside of the store and usually have a picket fence of bollards protecting them.   Again, flammable, possibly explosive devices need to be protected.  I’ve seen both surface mount and embedded steel bollards protecting these areas.  I wouldn’t advise surface mount bollards unless they were strong rebounding bollards, as the safety hazard here can be high.  Local conditions of course would dictate the potential hazards by passing traffic.

Gas Utilities

Utility companies often have meters and valve stacks located near the roadway.  Because natural gas is so flammable, it is important that the area is adequately protected with bollards should there be a reasonable chance of vehicle impact.  These will often be surrounded by a set of four or more bollards, usually steel and embedded deep in the ground.

Conclusion

Traffic denial is the main purpose of a safety bollard.   The applications listed here are some of the more popular uses that one will see in their daily travels.  In the next part of this article, I’ll discuss example specific to parking lots.  Some of those applications overlap with general traffic denial, but are specific to parking lots only.