Selection, Specification and Installation of Safety and Security Barriers and Bollards

Fact: The use of a vehicle by terrorists to attack crowds is on the rise. In fact, in 2016 more people in Europe and the United States were injured or killed by vehicle attacks than by shootings and bombings combined. Fact: Accidental deaths and injuries that are a result of a car driving onto sidewalks, into buildings, or into crowds of people at street fairs, farmer's markets, and commercial centers are increasing in the United States. The Storefront Safety Council notes that commercial buildings are struck 60 times per day, resulting in over 4,000 serious injuries and as many as 500 deaths. Fact: More than $150 million in settlements and judgments have been paid out by property owners, business owners, architects and engineers stemming from vehicle-into-building and vehicle into pedestrian areas/special events in the last two years. Fact: Prevention is always cheaper than failing to take precautions. Risks to property, risks to the public, and risks to professionals and their firms needs to be reassessed given the headlines, given trends in safety and liability, and given trends in the state courts upholding responsibilities of design professionals years after service is rendered. The use of bollards and barriers in high security applications is well known. Both the AIA and the ASLA put responsibility for project safety and security squarely on professionals who design and supervise construction projects -- but neither organization does a very good job of providing practical applications and instructions in the proper specification and deployment of such barriers. There are almost no construction projects involving a public building, a pedestrian area, a commercial or retail complex, or park or other streetscape that does not have the need or requirement to safely and securely separate vehicles from property and vehicles from people. This course will teach professionals the Why and Where and How of using bollards and barriers to protect people and property, and give design parameters that account for vehicle weights and speeds, approach vectors, penetration levels and more. The course will give numerous examples, will teach about ASTM standards F2656 and F3016 for the testing of bollards and barriers, and discuss recent code changes and legal and other trends as pertaining to providing effective protection and security to the public by specifying the correct product, installed in the correct way, and tested to the correct standard of performance.