Ask the Contract Director!
We understand that as members of the public, you probably have a lot of burning questions regarding the roads around Buckinghamshire. Well, we’re giving you the opportunity to get your questions answered by Transport for Buckinghamshire's Contract Director!
This is the 8th blog post that we have produced focusing on the questions that you have been asking, this week we are looking at:
Why won't the Watermead bollards stay up?
Recently, we refurbished some automatic bollards at Lark Vale, Watermead. These bollards create a restricted access route and make sure the route can only be used by buses. Unfortunately since they were installed, the bollards have failed several times. This has happened for a number of reasons and has caused a lot of frustration to the local residents.
The system that was originally in place for the bollards was outdated, having been in use for over ten years. This meant that maintenance of the bollards became increasingly difficult and so they were becoming very unreliable.
Using our 2018/19 budget, we were able to refurbish the bollards and install new technology for the system to operate on. This new system utilises the use of ground detectors, card readers and card swipe systems.
So how does the new system work?
Currently, bus drivers should drive the bus over the ground detector, and get their access pass card detected by the card reader, which is mounted on a pole on the drivers side on the approach. The reader then 'grants' access and the bollards lower into the ground. Once the bus has passed safely through, and the ground detectors are clear, the bollards rise back up.
How are we dealing with the system when it fails?
Aside from the vandalism incident, which caused the system to fail, they would only fail for safety reasons. For example, if a bus drives too close before the bollards are retracted, they will remain lowered. This has happened on several occasions now, and we are working closely with the bus team to make sure drivers are fully trained on how to use the bollards correctly. Each time a bus trips out the bollard system, a member of our team has to attend the site to manually reset the bollards, and we do this as soon as we can.
However, whilst we originally thought this was the only problem, we have now discovered that the system is occasionally failing for other reasons that are requiring ongoing investigation. As a result, we are working closely with our contractors, ATG, who are currently investigating this as an urgent priority.
Until we have resolved this issue, we will continue to go and reset the bollards as and when we need to.
What else are we doing?
In addition to looking into how we can rectify this ongoing issue, we are also seeing if we can implement two changes to the bollards - a manual reset button and remote monitoring.
The manual reset button would mean we could give the Parish Council the ability to reset the bollards themselves. This would mean they could potentially be reset more quickly than having to wait for someone from Transport for Buckinghamshire to attend the site.
Having remote monitoring would mean that we could raise and lower the bollards from our offices, so we wouldn't have to attend the site and again, the issue could be rectified more quickly.
We understand resident's frustration with the bollards at Lark Vale and we are aware that it is an ongoing issue. Please be assured that this is a priority and we are working to resolve the problems as soon as we can.
***EDIT - FURTHER UPDATE***
After some thorough investigation, we have been able to determine that there are issues with the card reader wiring; the wires need to be replaced. This has taken longer to determine than expected because it's an issue to do with the ducting - pipe lines that are carrying the electrical wiring beneath the ground. It is suspected that these have become either damaged or blocked, which is preventing the bollards from working.
Due to the scale of work required, we are looking at different options that both maximise the effectiveness of the repair as well as being cost efficient.
Why aren't we leaving the bollards up and resetting them more regularly?
Due to the card reader failing, not only does this cause the bollards to fail, but in most cases this would actually cause the bollards to remain up. This happened at our Fairford Leys site and is not something we want to repeat at Lark Vale, as it would cause more issues - the buses would not be able to get through because the card reader wouldn't work! As a result of this, it has been decided to leave the bollards down until further notice.
We are currently working with our supply chain partner to get these issues resolved as soon as possible and will continue to share updates as and when we have them.
We know this situation is frustrating but we thank you for your patience and hope you understand that this isn't straightforward for us to resolve.
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| The bollards during refurbishing works. |
So how does the new system work?
Currently, bus drivers should drive the bus over the ground detector, and get their access pass card detected by the card reader, which is mounted on a pole on the drivers side on the approach. The reader then 'grants' access and the bollards lower into the ground. Once the bus has passed safely through, and the ground detectors are clear, the bollards rise back up.
How are we dealing with the system when it fails?
Aside from the vandalism incident, which caused the system to fail, they would only fail for safety reasons. For example, if a bus drives too close before the bollards are retracted, they will remain lowered. This has happened on several occasions now, and we are working closely with the bus team to make sure drivers are fully trained on how to use the bollards correctly. Each time a bus trips out the bollard system, a member of our team has to attend the site to manually reset the bollards, and we do this as soon as we can.
However, whilst we originally thought this was the only problem, we have now discovered that the system is occasionally failing for other reasons that are requiring ongoing investigation. As a result, we are working closely with our contractors, ATG, who are currently investigating this as an urgent priority.
Until we have resolved this issue, we will continue to go and reset the bollards as and when we need to.
What else are we doing?
In addition to looking into how we can rectify this ongoing issue, we are also seeing if we can implement two changes to the bollards - a manual reset button and remote monitoring.
The manual reset button would mean we could give the Parish Council the ability to reset the bollards themselves. This would mean they could potentially be reset more quickly than having to wait for someone from Transport for Buckinghamshire to attend the site.
Having remote monitoring would mean that we could raise and lower the bollards from our offices, so we wouldn't have to attend the site and again, the issue could be rectified more quickly.
We understand resident's frustration with the bollards at Lark Vale and we are aware that it is an ongoing issue. Please be assured that this is a priority and we are working to resolve the problems as soon as we can.
***EDIT - FURTHER UPDATE***
After some thorough investigation, we have been able to determine that there are issues with the card reader wiring; the wires need to be replaced. This has taken longer to determine than expected because it's an issue to do with the ducting - pipe lines that are carrying the electrical wiring beneath the ground. It is suspected that these have become either damaged or blocked, which is preventing the bollards from working.
Due to the scale of work required, we are looking at different options that both maximise the effectiveness of the repair as well as being cost efficient.
Why aren't we leaving the bollards up and resetting them more regularly?
Due to the card reader failing, not only does this cause the bollards to fail, but in most cases this would actually cause the bollards to remain up. This happened at our Fairford Leys site and is not something we want to repeat at Lark Vale, as it would cause more issues - the buses would not be able to get through because the card reader wouldn't work! As a result of this, it has been decided to leave the bollards down until further notice.
We are currently working with our supply chain partner to get these issues resolved as soon as possible and will continue to share updates as and when we have them.
We know this situation is frustrating but we thank you for your patience and hope you understand that this isn't straightforward for us to resolve.
