Clark County may install steel posts along Strip sidewalks

Following killings at home and abroad where attackers have rammed vehicles into crowds of pedestrians, Clark County commissioners will consider Tuesday whether to install more than 1,000 steel posts along the Strip to separate the road and sidewalks.

The initiative has the backing of commission Chairman Steve Sisolak, the Metropolitan Police Department and Strip resort owners.

“We want to be able to say this is never going to happen again. Not here in Las Vegas,” Nevada Resort Association President Virginia Valentine said.

The proposal would place the posts, known as bollards, on a 1-mile section of Las Vegas Boulevard between Flamingo Road and Park Avenue. That would position them in front of resorts including Planet Hollywood Resort, Paris Las Vegas and the Bellagio.

Denis Cederburg, the county’s director of Public Works, said if those bollards are installed there might be more added in the future near Harrah’s, Caesars Palace and The Mirage.

Stopping power

The posts are 10 inches in diameter, but most of their mass is buried in a frame below ground, where they are interlocked.

Each bollard weighs 1,000 to 1,300 pounds. They can withstand a head-on collision from a 15,000-pound vehicle traveling 50 mph.

“This should pretty much stop any vehicle that’s used along Las Vegas Boulevard,” Cederburg said.

If commissioners vote in favor of the bollards, a competitive bid will be put out for their purchase and installation. Cederburg estimates the total cost will be between $3 million and $5 million.

Installation could begin in September and be finished before New Year’s Eve, he said.

Car attacks

The Associated Press reports that since this time last year vehicles have been used as weapons in fatal attacks in New York City; Stockholm; London; Melbourne, Australia; Jerusalem; Berlin; and Nice, France.

Altogether, more than 110 people were killed in the above mentioned attacks. The attack in Nice, perpetrated with a refrigerator truck, killed 86 people celebrating Bastille Day.

The Strip has also been subject to a similar incident.

Just days before Christmas in 2015, a woman killed one person and injured more than 30 others when she drove an Oldsmobile sedan onto the sidewalk in front of Paris Las Vegas and Planet Hollywood Resort.

Lakeisha Holloway, now 26, is set to be tried in February for 71 felony charges including murder, attempted murder with a deadly weapon and battery with a deadly weapon.

Contact Michael Scott Davidson at sdavidson@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3861. Follow @davidsonlvrj on Twitter. The Associated Press contributed to this report.