The City of North Battleford is looking at switching out the bollards located downtown, due to mounting costs of repairing the current ones that are there.
Director of City Operations Stewart Schafer reported to the city’s Planning Committee on Monday that the maintenance department is now investigating changing the bollards to a type that does not snap off when hit by a turning vehicle.
The bollards were put in as part of the downtown revitalization efforts of recent years. The revitalization has included the installation of new bulb-outs, new sidewalks, as well as improved lighting and street benches. But damage to the bollards has been an issue from the beginning.
While Schafer noted the situation is “not as bad as some people have been led to believe,” the costs of repairing the bollards are running at $5,000 to $7,000 a year.
A recent maintenance history of the bollards was provided, indicating that the price tag came to $22,085.72 in material costs (over a period of three years) and 46.75 hours of labour costs in connection to fixing the bollards.
Of the calls the city has been tracking, there were 22 reports of missing bollards — bollards that Schafer confirmed had actually been taken away by people — and 18 of bollards that were loose and were required to be rebolted. There were also five incidents of bollards needing new batteries for their solar lights.
According to a map provided by administration, the vast majority of affected bollards are ones located on street corners, as well as a few located on bulb-outs at crosswalk locations.
Switching to a different type of bollard would “reduce the bollard maintenance costs for repair and replacement,” Schafer stated in his memo to Planning Committee. In speaking to Planning Committee, they were looking at going to a harder bollard that does not break as easily.
Schafer suggested the bollard issue was due to poor driving, or people who were distracted and don’t realize where the end of the street is, “and they are catching the bollards.”
But Councillor Thomas “Bill” Ironstand pointed to the bulb-outs on the streets being an issue. They were located “too far out” and pose a problem for people turning, he said. He suggested if they were shortened and they made the turning radius longer, they wouldn’t run into this problem.
“It’s not just driving attentiveness or poor driving, it’s what we put out there,” said Ironstand.
