NY block-aid
The city is doubling down on protective barriers in Times Square after the deadly, ISIS-inspired terror attack on a lower Manhattan bicycle path, officials said Tuesday.
Mayor de Blasio announced that the city will double its $7.5 million budget for installing the bollards at the Crossroads of the World — and spend a total $50 million on 1,500 barriers in 10 “key locations” in coming years.
In September, officials allocated $7.5 million to improve street-level safety in Times Square as part of the Capital Plan, a decision that came just weeks before Uzbek national Sayfullo Saipov killed eight people by plowing a rented truck down a nearly one-mile stretch of the bike path on Halloween.
Now Hizzoner is boosting the funding to $50 million — with $15 million dedicated to Times Square alone.
“These bollards will make sure that the vehicles can never come into the places where pedestrians are,” he said.
Officials are installing the units in 10 pedestrian-heavy areas around the city, but won’t specify where.
“It’s not in the city’s interest to exactly put that list out,” Department of Transportation Commis- sioner Polly Trottenberg told reporters.
Workers will set down temporary bollards this month and then begin replacing them with permanent structures in March.