Automatic
Raised and lowered at the press of a button. Best where the bollard moves many times a day and there is a sensible route to run power and control cable to it.
Access solutions
Rising Bollard Installation in London
Vehicle control that lies flush with the ground until it is needed, installed with the groundworks and drainage a bollard depends on.
Why Rising Bollards Fail, and How We Install Them
Lowered, a rising bollard is a plate in the ground that traffic drives straight over. Raised, it stops a vehicle while people walk past it as normal. That is why it beats a gate on a shared entrance, a private road, a courtyard or a loading bay, because nothing swings out into the footway and there is nothing to look at when the entrance is open.
A rising bollard rarely fails at the motor. It fails because water is sitting in a housing that was never drained, because the pit was dug to the depth the ground allowed rather than the depth the unit needed, or because the ducting went in after the concrete instead of before it. Every one of those is a groundworks decision, taken before the bollard is out of its packaging.
Most firms fitting automatic bollards buy their digging in. We do not. The excavation, the drainage, the ducting and the surface that goes back over the top are all our own work, so one team answers for what is under the ground and what is on top of it, and the finished entrance does not look like a patch.
What that includes
- Site survey before anything is specified
- Automatic, battery powered and fixed bollards
- Excavation, drainage and ducting by our own team
- Power and control cabling run in duct
- Handsets, keypads or access control to suit the entrance
- Safety detection so a bollard never rises under a vehicle
- Surface reinstatement in concrete, tarmac or resin
Types of Rising Bollard
Battery
Automatic operation without the cable run. Worth considering where getting power to the spot is the expensive part of the job, as long as someone is happy to keep the batteries charged.
Fixed
A bollard that does not move. Use it where a line only ever needs protecting, around a shopfront, a substation or the corner of a yard, and it costs a fraction of a moving unit to keep.
On site
How a Rising Bollard Installation Runs
The same five stages every time, with the programme written down before anybody starts digging.
Book a site visit- Stage one
Site visit and survey
We come out and look at the ground, the power, the drainage, the traffic and the risk, and take measurements on site instead of guessing from a photograph.
- Stage two
Design and written quote
A drawing and an itemised quotation naming the exact equipment, so you can compare it like for like with anyone else you have asked.
- Stage three
Civils and groundworks
Excavation, drainage, ducting and foundations, carried out by our own team to the programme we agreed.
- Stage four
Installation and commissioning
Fit, wire, set the force limits, prove the safety devices and test the whole system before anybody signs it off.
- Stage five
Handover and aftercare
The paperwork, and a walkthrough for whoever uses it every day.
Common questions
Questions About Rising Bollards
What happens in a power cut
The bollards we supply can be released and lowered by hand, and we set that up and demonstrate it at handover so someone on site has done it at least once. A battery unit is a different question, because the entrance keeps working through an outage, but only for as long as the charged battery lasts.
Will it stop a vehicle that is trying to get through
That depends on the bollard. One that controls access day to day and one crash tested to a recognised impact standard are different products at very different prices. Tell us what you are protecting against and we will tell you which you need. We will not sell you the expensive one by default.
Can a bollard go into a pavement or a public road
Often, but it becomes a conversation with the highway authority and the utility companies before it becomes a job. We survey what is buried under the entrance first, including ground penetrating radar where the records are thin, because a bollard pit and a live main in the same place is an expensive way to find out.
Related Services
Automated gates
Swing, sliding and cantilever gates automated and commissioned to current safety standards, for driveways, yards and secure sites across London and the counties around it.
Read moreVehicle barriers
Arm barriers for car parks, depots and industrial entrances, specified for the number of vehicles that really use the entrance.
Read moreUtilities and groundworks
Excavation, drainage, service trenches and ducting, dug by our own team and put back so the ground above stays sound long after we have gone.
Read more
Tell us about the site and we will tell you what it needs
Send a photograph and a postcode and we will come back to you with what the site needs.