The steel bollards designed to seal Bourbon Street against vehicles were missing that night. A truck driver turned the French Quarter’s most famous street into a killing ground. New Orleans officials confirmed on Wednesday that workers were replacing the Bourbon Street bollards when the attacker struck. He reached the crowd by driving onto the sidewalk around a police cruiser parked at the entrance.
The attack killed fourteen people and hurt dozens more in the early hours of New Year’s Day. By the afternoon, the city’s security arrangements had become a central question. Officials had put those arrangements in place years ago for exactly this kind of attack. The Super Bowl, the city’s biggest security operation in years, was barely five weeks away.
KEY POINTS
- The Bourbon Street bollards dated to 2017. Workers were replacing them in a project officials say remains on track to finish before the Feb. 9 Super Bowl.
- The attacker bypassed the street entrance entirely. He mounted the sidewalk beside a parked police car, officials said.
- The city rolled out portable steel barriers it already owned on sidewalks in the days after the attack.
Bourbon Street bollards: what officials said on Wednesday
Mayor LaToya Cantrell told reporters the bollards were not in place. The city was midway through replacing them with a more effective pedestrian-barrier system. It was preparing the system for the Super Bowl. Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry addressed the timeline. He said completing the installation and proving it works would “be a top priority as we go into Super Bowl and Mardi Gras.”
Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick added a complication. Security experts were quick to underline it. The bollards guard the roadway entrances to Bourbon Street. But the attacker never used one. He drove onto the sidewalk at the corner. Fixed bollards do not close that gap. In the days after the attack, the city deployed portable 700-pound steel “archer” barriers. They block those sidewalk approaches. The city already had the equipment in its inventory. But it had not put the barriers out on New Year’s Eve.
Background and context
New Orleans installed its bollard system in 2017. It was part of a French Quarter security upgrade. The city undertook the upgrade after the 2016 truck attack in Nice, France. That attack showed what a vehicle could do to a festival crowd. The retractable steel posts were meant to rise from the pavement. They would seal the nightlife strip to traffic at Bourbon Street’s intersections. Pedestrians could still flow freely.
Like many such systems, the bollards aged badly. New Orleans has heavy rain, flooding and constant street work. Officials have acknowledged the mechanism frequently malfunctioned. The replacement project began in November. Workers dug up and removed sections of the system. Work proceeded block by block. Officials set the schedule with the Super Bowl in mind, not New Year’s Eve. They treated New Year’s Eve as covered by police vehicles and street closures. Reporting after the attack also pointed to a 2019 security assessment. The French Quarter’s management district had commissioned it. It had warned a vehicle attack was a foreseeable risk on Bourbon Street. It recommended stronger protections.
What happens next
The replacement system is now the most scrutinized construction schedule in the city. Officials committed to having the Bourbon Street bollards complete and tested before Super Bowl LIX on Feb. 9. Hundreds of thousands of visitors are expected then. It must also be ready before the Mardi Gras season that follows. Federal and state agencies are reviewing event perimeters with the city. The decisions taken on New Year’s Eve will feature in post-attack reviews. These include which barriers the city deployed and which it did not. They also include who knew what the city had in storage. Councillors and the victims’ families are already demanding those reviews.
For the French Quarter, the practical change arrived within days. Archers went up on the sidewalks. The city closed more intersections. Officials say a visible security presence will remain through the spring’s events.
Sources: New Orleans mayor and police superintendent briefings, Jan. 1–2; Louisiana governor’s statements; City of New Orleans French Quarter security project records.
