Massive bollards in place

As locals take some solo exercise time in Seaside Park in Otahuhu, South Auckland, during the national COVID-19 lockdown, they’ll notice the huge new bollards in place separating the road and car park from the recreational area.

It all looks great – but what a mammoth effort it was for Citycare Property carpenter Kayne Maxwell and labourer Taonui Campbell to manoeuvre 3.8 tonnes of 64-kilogramme wooden bollards into position to replace the existing rotten ones.

Citycare Property’s minor capital works team completed the Seaside Park bollard upgrade just before the lockdown.

“The old bollards were obscenely heavy – triple the weight of the new ones because of the concrete attached,” Kayne Maxwell said.

“To get them out, we used what everyone at the depot calls the ‘green machine’, the Bobcat-type digger. The machine could wriggle the bollards up and lift them in the skip,” Kayne said.

But it was another story for the 59 new bollards, which are 900 millimetres high and 300mm square in diameter and took a bit of juggling to get into place.

“It was a real physical job. First, we had to re-dig the holes and the ground was like concrete because it is reclaimed land with a metre of hardfill and rock on top. The bollards had to be 400mm underground and perfectly in line with each other,” he said.

“We had to be careful not to damage the wood, so we lifted each bollard manually into place,” Kayne said.

Bollards are used in public parks to separate vehicle areas such as roading and car parks from the grassed open spaces.

The bollards prevent vehicles from driving onto the grassed areas to damage the turf.

Seaside Park is home to the Otahuhu United football club, Otahuhu badminton club and a sea cadets unit. Presently lots of people are walking dogs and exercising in the park in their ‘bubbles’, getting some fresh air during the lockdown.

Once community sport and recreation resumes, the bollards will be highly visible for the hundreds of families playing and watching football and other activities in Seaside Park.

Three new stainless steel rubbish bins were also installed among the bollards.