Bollards installation in asphalt parking lots

[power2engineer]

I work in solar industry with carport canopy structure with pole mounted electrical equipment such as Solar inverters, AC combiner Panels with underground conduit risers at the canopy structural columns. The surface of these Carport is finished with asphalt. Bolt down Bollards are the cheapest barrier to guard the Solar canopy mounted Elec Panels but due to asphalts temp ssesitive expansion/contraction characteristic it is suggested that a concrete form must be provided to mount the bollard. I cam across a product called asphalt anchors. Which is essentially an epoxy filler (like Quikrete) to secure the Boltdown bollard anchors which provides better stability from asphalt movement. Anybody has experience in using Boltdown or Pour in Bollard for parking lot post mounted equipment? What ASTM 3016 standard these Bollards needs to comply with?? Any suggestions?

 

[XR250]

I don't know ASTM 3016, but anything over a bicycle hitting it would likely fail the asphalt.

 

[phamENG]

From what I've seen, those asphalt anchors are more for non-structural crowd control bollards (like organizing lines, etc.) and bike racks. If you want to protect something from impact, you need a concrete foundation.

 

[bridgebuster]

I agree with pham. If you're trying to protect your equipment from impact, concrete foundation. I have used asphalt anchors recently. We put some flexible bollards around a bridge column in a parking lot. We needed to protect an electric box mounted to the column. The risk of impact is fairly low. The flexible bollards are enough of a warning to keep vehicles away.

 

[TLHS]

Yeah, asphalt anchors maybe as a "make sure people don't push this around" stop or for pure sliding loads. Tension isn't going to work for much.

 

[power2engineer]

To all my learned colleague uninamously rejected Bolt-down bollards on asphalt surface. What is your opinion of using Pour in Place Bollard would that give better protection for pole mounted equipment as described here.

 

[btrueblood]

Do you need the bollard to be removable?

 

[bridgebuster]

From the photo it appears that the equipment is in a striped off area with minimal impact risk. What about using water filled barrier around it? These are commonly used in NYC to protect pedestrians during construction on city streets.

Link

 

[milkshakelake]

I'm okay with the pour-in-place bollard with an unreinforced concrete foundation. You'll need a sizeable hit to tip it over. It'll be permanent.

 

[bridgebuster]

Bollards are an art and a science. There are security bollards and non-security bollards. The art is knowing when to use one or the other. One has to determine if the bollard is there to stop a vehicle or just alert the driver to stay away. This is a photo of the center tube for the Lincoln Tunnel between NY & NJ. The center tube has a reversible configuration during rush hours. These are flexible bollards; they serve as a warning. During the morning rush on the NJ side the left lane of westbound RT 495 has a mile of flexible bollards for the reversible lane. These are put out every morning. The Queens-Midtown Tunnel on the other side of Manhattan does the same thing. They won't stop a collision but fortunately collisions have been few and far between

If you're looking to stop a vehicle, the FTA & DoD have manuals containing bollards foundation details and design methodologies. The question is: Do you want to stop a vehicle or just damage it? This is where the science comes in.

Another useful product is the Martello Bollard, which has a relatively small concrete foundation. It's low profile but it'll do some damage to a car. They're common in NYC and I've used these on a few projects. They're intended to offer some protection to pedestrians standing on a traffic island.

Recently I had a bridge project in NYC on which the owner reconfigured the roadway layout during construction. One traffic lane was eliminated for a bike lane, and the parking lane and sidewalk were moved toward the center of the roadway. DOT wanted non-flexible bollards on the sidewalk along the parking lane. They're steel bollards mounted to the sidewalk with expansion anchors. At the ends of the parking lane along the crosswalks they wanted flexible bollards. One reason, they were concerned that a vehicle could drive into the bollard and the motorist would claim damage to their vehicle; that's another consideration, owner liability for damage.

Link

 

[power2engineer]

Thank you all for your attention to my quesries and attempts for your best responses I think Milkshakelake's response works the best in my situation.

 

[bridgebuster]

Forgot, It's F3016 Standard Test Method for Surrogate Testing of Vehicle Impact Protective Devices at Low Speeds. There's also a related spec F2656 Standard Test Method for Crash Testing of Vehicle Security Barriers. These aren't directly related your situation. They're the specs for testing devices at certain speeds and vehicle weights.