New Orleans planned new Bourbon Street barriers only crash-rated to 10 mph

Months before the deadly New Orleans vehicle attack on New Year’s Day, the city modeled scenarios for how an attacker could enter Bourbon Street at various intersections in a crew-cab Ford F-150 similar to the one used to kill 14 people and injure dozens more.Engineers found such a pickup could enter the crowded tourist strip at speeds ranging from 12 to 70 mph – and yet city officials are now installing new street barriers that can only withstand 10-mph impacts, according to an April city-contracted engineering analysis and city bid documents reviewed by Reuters.Those new barriers, known as “bollards,” had not yet been installed on Bourbon Street on New Year’s but are planned to be completed by the Feb.9 NFL Super Bowl in New Orleans.

The documents reviewed by Reuters, which have not been previously reported, make clear that the system won’t be able to prevent vehicle attacks at moderate-to-high speeds.In selecting the new bollard system, the city prioritized ease of operation over crashworthiness of the new bollard system because of chronic problems in operating the old one, according to the documents and a source with direct knowledge of the city’s Bourbon Street security planning.Unlike some pedestrian-only zones, such as in New York City’s Times Square, Bourbon Street is open to regular vehicle traffic for much of the day, requiring city officials to block parts of it off from surrounding streets each evening.Since the New Year’s Day attack, New Orleans officials have faced scrutiny over whether they left citizens vulnerable as crews were removing old bollards and installing new ones.But neither barrier system would have prevented the deadly attack, according to the source and a Reuters review of the city documents.The city currently has no bollards at Canal and Bourbon streets, where the attacker entered, but the roadway was blocked by an SUV police cruiser parked sideways on New Year’s.A...