The city of New Orleans was upgrading security bollards along a section of Bourbon Street in the area where a man killed 10 people early Wednesday by driving a truck through a crowd, according to its website.

The project involved replacing old bollards — barriers designed to protect pedestrians and property from vehicles — with removable stainless-steel ones, the city’s website said. It is unclear if any bollards were in place during the attack.

At a brief public appearance Wednesday morning, city officials declined to answer questions, including about whether bollards could have or should have prevented a vehicle from accessing the site of the attack.

Anne Kirkpatrick, the New Orleans police superintendent, said at the news conference that the driver of the truck “went around our barricades” to conduct the attack.

“He was hell-bent on creating the carnage and the damage that he did,” she said.

Kirkpatrick said the city implemented additional security measures for New Year’s Eve, including deploying more than 300 officers last night. In an interview with The Times-Picayune earlier this week, she said the officers would be supported by 60 Louisiana State Police troopers.

The district attorney of Orleans Parish, Jason Williams, said in an interview Wednesday morning that it was too early to say whether bollards were in place or if the driver had navigated around them.

“That information is not clear yet; it’s still being looked into,” he said. “But driving a vehicle into a crowd is not particularly a thing that any law enforcement agency can be prepared for.”

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The construction project covers a half-mile stretch of Bourbon Street, from Canal Street to St. Ann Street, according to the website. Officials at the news conference urged people to avoid that section of Bourbon Street as authorities investigated the attack.

Bourbon Street was taped off by the police Wednesday morning, with a dozen police vehicles parked at the intersection with Canal Street.

During construction, the city said that the bollards would be removed and replaced with temporary asphalt to allow vehicles to pass during construction, according to the website. The new bollards would then be installed in phases.

The new bollards would close the street to cars during pedestrian-only events but could be stored away to open the streets to traffic, the website said.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.