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:- Traffic Denial (today)
- Parking Lot Protection
- Drive-Thru Lanes
- 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.
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.
