What Is a Bollard, and When Does Your Property Need One?

A bollard is a short steel post set in concrete to take a vehicle hit so the thing behind it does not. Most of the ones we set are 4 to 6 inch pipe, about 4 feet above grade, filled with concrete so the post does not fold when it gets hit. In dirt the post goes into a footing about 3 feet deep. In a slab it gets core-drilled through the concrete. A fixed post runs $530 to $1,000 installed.

Fixed, removable, retractable, flexible

Fixed is the standard: concrete-filled steel set permanently in the ground, at storefronts, docks and equipment. It costs the least per post.

Removable drops into a sleeve set in the concrete and locks at grade with a padlock, so the post lifts out when the opening has to be clear. Fire lanes, seasonal access, a driveway that opens once a month. The sleeve and the lock add fabrication, so it costs more.

Retractable does the same job with the post going down into the ground instead of lifting out, manual or powered.

Flexible posts are rubber or polymer. They bend when a car touches them and stand back up, so they mark lanes and guide traffic. They do not stop a vehicle, and a site that needs stopping needs steel.

When you need one

• A car keeps clipping the building corner, a column, or the storefront glass.
• A fuel island, gas meter, generator, transformer, or air and water station sits next to a drive aisle.
• Drive-through menu boards and pickup windows.
• Loading docks and warehouse doors that trucks and forklifts back into.
• Walkways and ADA routes that run alongside a drive aisle.
• Inside a dumpster enclosure, so the truck hits the bollard and not the gate post.
• After a vehicle has already hit something, and the owner or the insurer wants it protected before it happens again.

Which one fits

Most sites want fixed steel: lowest cost per post, and it stops the vehicle. Removable makes sense only where the opening genuinely has to clear, because the sleeve costs more than a plain footing. Flexible is for guiding traffic, and where that is all the spot needs we say so, because it costs less than steel. Tell us what is happening at the spot and we will tell you which one it takes. The removable type is covered on its own in removable bollards.

How they go in

Where there is dirt, we dig and pour a concrete footing about 3 feet deep. Where there is a slab, we core-drill through it, as deep as the concrete goes, drop the pipe in and grout it solid. Either way the pipe gets filled with concrete and capped, because the fill is most of what makes the post take a hit instead of folding. Spacing usually runs 3 to 5 feet on center, close enough that a vehicle cannot fit between them. Safety yellow is the standard finish; powder coat in another color matches the building.

Before any digging or drilling we call 811 to get the public lines marked. 811 does not mark private lines, so irrigation, drip lines and old conduit are yours to point out. If you are not sure where they run, say so and we dig slower around them.

What they cost

How many posts, the diameter, what the post goes into, and the finish change the price.

A standard 4-inch fixed post sits at the bottom of its range. Holes through existing concrete cost more than holes in dirt, because the crew breaks out the surface, core-drills and clears each one before pouring. The count barely changes the price of each post, with one exception: the crew, the truck and the core drill cost the same to send for one post as for twenty, so a single bollard lands at the top of the range instead of the bottom. The full breakdown is on our bollards page.