This week, a series of four-inch-thick, stainless steel, removable safety bollards will be installed in three locations of the Yale Mall Plaza, which is near Shocker Hall.

Safety bollards are short poles that are often on sidewalks next to streets. Their purpose is to prevent public and private vehicles from entering sidewalk areas.

“One day me and my friends were at lunch and we saw a girl driving her car through here. And I was like, ‘What are you doing? People walk through here’,” said freshman Tori Cardwell, a Shocker Hall resident.

The Physical Plant at Wichita State is in charge of the project, and Bauer & Son Construction, a Wichita construction company that is also working on the north steps of Clinton Hall, will do the installation work.

The three locations of the bollards will be between Shocker Hall and Morrison Hall, Morrison Hall’s parking lot and Jabara Hall and at the north side of Yale Mall Plaza, just south of Hubbard Hall’s truck dock entry.

“The main emphasis is… pedestrian safety,” said Kevin Young, architect with the Physical. “And, of course, limiting vehicular traffic down through that plaza.”

Young is the project manager for the safety bollards installation. He and other facility employees helped decide where the bollards will be placed.

“There were a few complaints as to vehicles going up and down that mall area, both private vehicles and commercial vehicles,” Young said.

Sometimes drivers of commercial vehicles would bring deliveries to Shocker Hall or Hubbard Hall and drive onto the sidewalk of Yale Mall Plaza.  

“It really is not supposed to be used for commercial traffic down through there because, you know, there are docks — areas where they can access buildings,” Young said.

The sidewalks of Yale Mall Plaza also serve as a fire lane for emergencies, so the bollards will be removable to allow emergency vehicles access to the campus.

Disability Services and Admissions golf carts will still be able to access the area with the bollards up.

The bollards will also be easily visible with reflective tape.  

During the first week or so that the bollards are present on campus, there may be caution tape or cones placed by the bollards to increase visibility while people become accustomed to them, said Randy Pulec, director of facility maintenance at the Physical Plant.

“A lot of people walk up and down here to go to classes,” Cardwell said. “So, I think it’s a good idea to install those. I think it’s a good idea to keep it safe for students.”

“By the time they [students] come back from Thanksgiving break, they [the safety bollards] should be in place,” Young said.