Bollards installed at carefully considered locations enable important traffic management and security functions. By diverting vehicle flows away from sensitive areas and providing sturdy protective barriers, bollards can prevent unauthorised access while hardening sites against hostile vehicle threats.
Passively Redirecting Vehicular Circulation
Bollards can influence driver behaviour and passively redirect traffic away from restricted zones. Intelligent HVM bollard placement eliminates unnecessary traffic near vulnerable areas.
Funnelling Vehicles Toward Screening Points
Placing bollards along a facility’s perimeter guides approaching vehicles directly toward gated access control points. This helps funnel all traffic toward entrances where security screening occurs.
Attempts to bypass gatehouses and drive unchecked into the site interior are blocked by the bollard barrier. Diverting traffic also reduces unnecessary circulation near loading docks, maintenance areas, and other restricted zones.
Blocking Motorised Access to Pedestrian Zones
Bollards can selectively block motorised access to sidewalks, courtyards, plazas, and other pedestrian areas while allowing people to freely pass through.
Retractable bollard models permit occasional delivery or service vehicle entry if needed for maintenance, events, etc. Otherwise, the bollards keep the zones vehicle-free.
Channelled Entries/Exits
Arranging bollards in extended rows channels traffic into controlled entry and exit lanes. This prevents haphazard driving movements and reinforces circulation patterns.
Shielding Specific Assets from Potential Impacts
Bollards placed around localised assets absorb accidental collisions or intentional harm. Their buffers provide reliable protection.
Safeguarding Critical Infrastructure
Bollards positioned near generators, electrical transformers, communications gear, and other critical infrastructure can prevent vehicle impacts that lead to service disruptions. Even accidental crashes could have catastrophic effects at sensitive facilities.
Securing Exterior-Stored Assets
Encircling exterior stored inventory, materials, machinery, vehicles, or other assets with bollards absorbs potential damage from adjacent traffic. This safeguards the items while allowing efficient proximate staging.
Defending Pedestrians
Bollards dividing roadways, lanes, and parking areas from adjacent sidewalks or crosswalks establish a firm barrier defending crossing pedestrians from vehicle intrusion.
Protecting Structures
Anchoring bollards near building corners, overhangs, protruding equipment like ATMs, and other structural vulnerabilities shields them from being struck by turning trucks or distracted drivers.
Preventing Malicious Ramming Attacks
Security-rated bollards engineered to resist intense impact forces deter potentially catastrophic breaches by hostile vehicles.
Hardening Buildings and Public Venues
Anchoring heavy-duty bollards around stadiums, performance halls, convention centres, airports, government facilities and more creates imposing rings of protection.
Bollards thwart truck bombs or other malicious tactics involving ramming the site with a large, fast-moving vehicle.
Embedded to Withstand Ramming Forces
Bollards effective at stopping heavy trucks in their tracks must be deeply embedded into substantial reinforced concrete foundations. This anchors them against the tremendous forces involved in a ramming attack.
Some models are crash-tested under government security ratings (PAS 68, IWA 14, etc.) to validate their stopping capacity when installed properly.
Layered with Supporting Barriers
Using bollards in combination with fences, berms, planters, walls, and other barriers creates layered buffers against vehicular ingress. This progressively slows and impedes any ramming attempts.
The multifaceted vehicle-resistant perimeter provides robust protection of assets, infrastructure, and people.
In summary, bollards placed with security and traffic flow in mind enable safer circulation while also providing formidable protective barriers. Prominent bollard placement deters trespassing and crime by clearly designating restricted areas. Bollards have become a ubiquitous icon of effective site access control and defence.
