Highways team hail
Gateshead Council’s Highways
Engineering Team believe they have found a contender for the “Toughest Bollard
in Britain”.
The Night Owl bollard from Street Furnishings is situated at a former accident black spot near Birtley.
It has been nudged, whacked or run
over virtually every day for over 12 months and is still standing and
performing its duty.
The ‘T’ junction, situated on a
virtually blind bend in the road, was notorious for collisions as vehicles ‘cut
the corner’ despite the give way warning signs and associated road markings.
In an attempt to prevent this, the
council constructed an island complete with two Night Owl keep-left,
bounce-back bollards which have dramatically reduced accidents.
The corner remains ‘tight’ and
although drivers are now approaching it with more care, many larger vehicles
still cut the corner and hit the Night Owl bollard nearest to the junction.
Ian McCran of Gateshead Council
said: “The scheme has been a great success in reducing collisions.
“And it has proven to us the inherent,
outstanding durability of Leafield’s Night Owl sign bollard; so much so that it
is now Gateshead’s current preferred choice for keep left self-righting
bollards.”
So impressed have the Council been with the performance of the Night Owl that
they are about to trial the recently introduced Illuminated Night Owl which is
base lit with a high performance LED and is reported to be so energy efficient
that it costs less than £4 per annum to operate.
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Breakdown of Illuminated Nightowl showing LED unit and Duct Box Base
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