When bollards attack

Last night I was leaving the Cultural Commission meeting at 44 Front St and on the way out came across what was a Worcester first, for me. We’ve installed about a hundred nice cast iron bollards around the common area since construction began down there; nice classic looking pedestals. But last night, the one that sits in front of the new Kinkos at 44 Front was laying half in the street and half under the front end of a Toyota SUV having obviously rolled there. I’m guessing from the huge gouge in the curb that the thing was pushed over, off the curb, and it rolled until it wedged under this particular car. But thats not really the weird part, considering round things tend to roll.

What was weird is that this thing was knocked over in the first place. Typically bollards are secured to the ground with giant lugs and nuts. No such set up in this case. It was just placed on the sidewalk. A few hundred pounds of cast iron with a tendency to roll was just plopped on the side walk. Seeing this was one of those moments of clarity when it becomes perfectly clear why Worcester is self insured. I figure you could probably break three ankles and crush four infants with one bollard if it was hit by a car. Kinda the opposite of what they are supposed to be doing. I didn’t have the time to check last night, but if anyone is around the common, I’d be curious to hear if all of these newish bollards are free standing. And if you see anyone stuck underneath one, please give them a hand.

Post by: Brendan | November 9, 2007 | Filed Under The Big Woo, redevelopment 

Comments

2 Responses to “When bollards attack”

  1. Tom F. on November 10th, 2007 8:11 pm

    Gee whiz, that’s shocking. You’d think that people who have no larger purpose in life than maintaining their patronage-gained sinecures and publicly padded pensions would be more efficient in their work.
    Someone, somewhere “accidentally” didn’t dot the i’s and cross the t’s in the contract to install the bollards, so now those same people will insist that they need MORE money and MORE non-productive hours to get the job done right.
    It’s almost like one political Party/philosophy runs both the municipal works departments and the budgets that they depend on.
    How many streetlights do you think worked properly in Moscow?

  2. Gabe on November 13th, 2007 6:28 am

    I am on this. I will make a common check today when I get home. Next time you are downtown, call me, we’ll grab a beer.



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