What Are HVM Bollards?

HVM Bollards Meaning

Have you ever heard the term HVM Bollards and wondered what it means? In our industry, it can be quite easy to get lost in all the acronyms and technical jargon we use. To help make your lives easier we’ve put together this quick explanation of what we mean when we say HVM Bollards.

What is HVM?

Before getting into what HVM Bollards are, it’s important that we first explain what HVM means. HVM is an acronym for Hostile Vehicle Mitigation. Hostile vehicle mitigation is a generic term that covers a range of products, solutions and protective measures designed to combat vehicle-borne threats.

Vehicle-borne threats can take the form of vandalism or targeted attacks by terrorists or criminals. These threats may take the form of a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device (VBIED) where the vehicle is used as a means to deliver an explosive payload.

They may also come from vehicle-as-a-weapon attacks (VAAW) where the vehicle itself is used as the weapon. Tragically, this is something we have seen a rise in over the last few years, with crowded locations and events becoming key targets for terrorist and lone-wolf attacks.

Beyond targeted vehicle threats, Hostile Vehicle Mitigation bollards are also used to protect against accidental impacts. Lower rated products such as those tested to PAS 170, can offer crash-tested protection from low-velocity impacts for sites such as schools and supermarkets.

What are HVM Bollards?

HVM bollards are bollards that have been designed and crash-tested for hostile vehicle mitigation purposes. These bollards are installed to protect all manner of sites from potential attacks, whether its critical national infrastructure or busy city centres.

HVM Bollards will be designed and engineered to mitigate against a specific size and speed of vehicle and will be crash test rated to meet this. There are a number of well-established standards for rating HVM products including BSI PAS 68 (UK), IWA 14-1 (International) and ASTM F2656 / F2656M (USA).

Identifying the size and speed of vehicles that will need to be mitigated against will usually be done by conducting a vehicle dynamic assessment (VDA). This will often be undertaken by a counter-terror security advisor (CTSA) or a qualified security engineer. When it comes to our HVM bollards they can range from 1,500kg at 32kph (20mph) all the way up to 30,000kg at 80kph (50mph).

HVM bollards can refer to any type of bollard that has been designed for HVM, whether it’s fixed, shallow mount, automatic, retractable or removable. It can also be applied to other crash tested products such as barriers, road blockers or wire rope fencing.

When looking at an HVM bollard you will often see the standard or specification it’s been tested to and the rating it received which will often look something like this V/7,200[N2A]/80/90:1.9. Below is a breakdown of an IWA 14-1 rating using our Centurion HVM Bollard.

Want a more in-depth look at hostile vehicle mitigation and crash test ratings? Read our definitive guides on PAS 68 and IWA 14-1. If you’re looking at HVM Bollards for a specific scheme and require specialist knowledge you can use one of the contact forms below, email us at sales@atgaccess.com or call our team on +44 (0)345 350 3799.