The movable police barricades that have kept drivers off Bourbon Street are being replaced with heftier protection for New Orleans’ most popular tourist destination.

The first stout metal posts — bollards in security parlance — are in place at the Bourbon-Canal Street intersection, with crews working to install more of the car-blocking cylinders at four more intersections in coming weeks.

The bollards are a significant element of the $40 million citywide security plan Mayor Mitch Landrieu unveiled at the beginning of the year.

Officials feared that the often-packed street could present a tempting target for terrorist attacks and that crowds could be put at risk by careening vehicles.

“What we’ve seen in Nice (France), what we saw just several weeks ago in New York City, is that vehicle attacks against pedestrians are become more common across the country and across the world,” New Orleans Homeland Security Director Aaron Miller said Friday.

“As a result, cities are taking protective action to mitigate against that risk where it’s necessary. We see a large concentration of pedestrians in the French Quarter, particularly on Bourbon Street. It offers what we consider to be an iconic or symbolic target.”

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The bollards are being installed as work to repair the first few blocks of Bourbon Street and the utilities beneath it is wrapping up. That project, originally expected to cost $6 million, has grown to a $10 million effort for just the first few blocks and is expected to cost millions more to finish the entire planned eight-block stretch.

The protective barriers will be installed across Bourbon at each intersection from Canal to St. Louis Street.

The bollards will be closed at the same times that police barricades have blocked traffic from turning onto Bourbon, Miller said. The bollards will be placed on Bourbon itself; vehicles will still be able to cross Bourbon when they are closed.

Miller declined to specify what kind of vehicles traveling at what speed the bollards are designed to stop.

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The system consists of sets of four bollards that stretch across the roadway. The two in the middle can be pushed back behind those on the sides, leaving a 13-foot-wide lane for vehicles when the street is not blocked off.

Once in the open or closed position, the bollards can be locked into place.

The bollards were purchased for a little more than $1 million, Landrieu administration spokesman Craig Belden said. They are all expected to be installed this month.

Since earlier this year, the city has been using smaller, temporary equipment to block off areas of the French Quarter. Those devices will still be used in other areas of the district, particularly during special events, Miller said.

The city is also looking into what other areas of the Quarter might benefit from having bollards, he said.

New Orleans officials have grown concerned about the dangers vehicles could pose to Bourbon Street crowds, particularly in light of attacks in Europe in which terrorists drove large trucks into crowds of people.

A similar attack occurred in New York City on Halloween, when an attacker killed eight people and wounded a dozen after driving onto a bike path.

Unintentional crashes also have been a concern. During this year's Endymion parade, a drunk driver plowed a pick-up into the crowd near Orleans and North Carrollton avenues, injuring two dozen people.

The bollards will eventually be painted matte black — a decision that was made in conjunction with French Quarter groups.

Meanwhile, the city is hoping to wrap up construction on the first four blocks of Bourbon by the end of the year, interim Public Works Director Dani Galloway said.

That project was initially supposed to cost $6 million to pave eight blocks of the roadway by the end of the year and to repair and upgrade the pipes, drainage lines and other utilities under the street. But a series of problems caused delays and cost overruns, eventually ballooning the pricetag for just the first four blocks to $10 million.

Construction on the next four blocks is expected to begin next year and to cost about $5 million, Galloway said.