The city of Starkville is installing sleeves for bollards at selected locations throughout downtown and midtown.
Work installing the bollard sleeves is expected to be finished by the end of the week, according to City Engineer Edward Kemp. In all, 104 bollard sleeves are being installed this week. Kemp said 70 of those are being installed downtown, while 34 are being installed in the midtown area between South Montgomery Street and Jarnigan Street.
Bollards are portable metal posts that can be inserted into the ground to stop or reroute traffic.
Kemp noted the road work may require temporary road closures or detours.
“They basically core out a hole initially,” Kemp said. “That’s what we’re doing first around town. The asphalt is removed, and the metal sleeve will be installed into the ground and encased in concrete.”
When not in use, Kemp said, the bollards sleeves will have a metal cap on them to keep them covered. For motorists, he said, they will look like a circular metal plate on the ground.
Aldermen approved the bollard installation plan, which has also seen bollards installed in the Cotton District, in December. This week’s work is the project’s final phase.
The bollards are part of a $7.5 million bond issue aldermen approved in November for road, sidewalk, drainage and traffic control improvements. The bollard project costs roughly $50,000.
City officials looked to installing the bollards as a way to help block off certain areas for events, such as the Cotton District Arts Festival or Bulldog Bash. Mayor Lynn Spruill said the bollards can help reduce the number of police officers needed to close streets during events.
“In particular, they’re reducing our need for on-site personnel and reducing our need to use our assets for blocking streets,” Spruill said. “So we can allow our police to go ahead and do other crowd control and another policing activities around the rest of the community.
“Hopefully it may reduce some of our policing overtime requirements,” she added. “If you don’t have to have four people sitting at an intersection and you can drop it down to two people sitting at an intersection, you’ve reduced costs and increased your safety factor.”
Alex Holloway was formerly a reporter with The Dispatch.
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