NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) - City leaders knew -- nearly eight years ago-- that Bourbon Street revelers could be a prime target for anyone who wanted to use a vehicle as a weapon. In 2017, the Mayor Mitch Landrieu's administration started installing bollards-- retractable metal posts-- at five Bourbon Street intersections. The city's director of Homeland Security at the time, Aaron Miller, said that installing bollards on Bourbon Street was in response to a rise in attacks on pedestrian targets around the world. "We see large concentrations of pedestrians in the French Quarter, specifically on Bourbon Street. It offers what we believe is an iconic or symbolic target,' Miller said in an interview at the time. "We want to make sure we are hardening structure where appropriate," he said. But over the years, the bollards malfunctioned, and the Cantrell administration hired a contractor a few months ago to begin repairs. The intent was to finish those repairs before the Super Bowl in February-- a deadline that was not soon enough to stop the New Year's Day terrorist attack. While Mayor Latoya Cantrell defended those plans in a news conference held hours after the attack, others in city government, including City Councilman J.P. Morrell, said they had no idea that the bollards were not functioning. NOPD Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said that temporary barricades in place for the Sugar Bowl, including a patrol car parked across the intersection where Canal meets Bourbon, should have been sufficient. But the terrorist drove the pickup truck around the barriers and onto the sidewalk. "We did indeed have a plan," Kirkpatrick said, "but the terrorist defeated it."