New Orleans’ Bourbon Street security measures faced significant scrutiny following a deadly vehicle attack on New Year’s Day. Months prior, a city-commissioned engineering analysis revealed a chilling vulnerability: a Ford F-150 could easily enter Bourbon Street at speeds up to 70 mph from various intersections. This finding directly contradicted the city’s decision to install new bollards—street barriers—with a 10 mph impact rating, a fact revealed by April 2024 city-contracted engineering analysis and bid documents obtained by Reuters.
These documents, previously unreported, highlight a critical discrepancy between the potential threat and the city’s chosen security solution. The new bollards, scheduled for full installation by February 9th, 2024, in time for the Super Bowl, would be ineffective against vehicles traveling at moderate to high speeds. The city prioritized ease of operation and maintenance over crashworthiness, largely due to persistent operational problems with the previous system. Unlike pedestrian-only zones in cities like New York, Bourbon Street allows regular vehicle traffic during the day, requiring nightly closures of access points from side streets. The old system, the Heald HT2-Matador, proved problematic; its tracks frequently jammed with debris, rendering it inoperable. This led the city to prioritize ease of deployment and removal in its selection of the RCS8040 S10 removable bollard system from 1-800-Bollards Inc.
The New Year’s Day attack tragically exposed this vulnerability. The suspect, Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a radicalized US combat veteran, bypassed the parked police SUV blocking the roadway by driving his Ford F-150 Lightning onto the narrow sidewalk. The city’s security modeling, focusing solely on vehicle entry via the roadway, failed to account for this exploit. While the city’s security planning includes deploying larger vehicles to block vulnerable access points during major events like Mardi Gras and New Year’s Eve, this is not a practical daily solution.
A source with direct knowledge of the city’s security planning confirmed that neither the old nor the new bollard system would have prevented the attack. The source further stated that the city faced “tough meetings” regarding the continued vulnerabilities of the new system, emphasizing the challenges of balancing security with the need for pedestrian and vehicular accessibility, including accessible sidewalks for people with disabilities. The chosen 10 mph bollard system, while capable of slowing or damaging a faster vehicle, did not meet the city’s project safety requirements as outlined in the Mott MacDonald report. The report’s scoring emphasized the bollards’ low weight and cost over their safety rating.
New Orleans city officials did not respond to Reuters’ inquiries regarding their security planning and the decision to prioritize a lower impact-rated bollard system. Representatives from both 1-800-Bollards Inc and Mott MacDonald declined to comment. The incident underscores the complex challenge cities face in mitigating the risk of vehicle-borne attacks while maintaining functionality and accessibility for residents and visitors.