Over the next three weeks, the City of Hamilton is hoping to have a key piece of an enhanced security plan installed parallel to busy streets around city hall.
Work crews put up temporary construction fencing Monday and will soon be pouring concrete to put up bollards on walkways near Jackson Street in Part 1 of a three-stage process that will finish in July.
Bay and Main streets are also on the work schedule, with installation near each of the streets taking some three to four weeks to complete.
City spokesperson Emily Trotta told Global News in an email that access to city hall “will not be impacted at any point” during the installations.
Councillors voted in favour of installing the bollards at an approximate cost of $700,000 in March 2021 after discussions suggested city hall could be a potential target for a hostile vehicle attack.
The issue came to light after the forecourt became a popular destination for demonstrators supporting multiple causes in the summer of 2019.
A bus carrying anti-immigration slogans mounting a sidewalk near Main Street in August 2019 escalated talk among councillors about safety upgrades.
Ward 3 Coun. Nrinder Nann at that time characterized the addition of bollards as “unfortunate” amid escalation of hate-based activity in the city.
However, Ward 6 Coun. Tom Jackson opposed it, suggesting the measure would be turning the seat of local government into “a fortress.”
Jackson acknowledged “a summer of discontent,” but insisted the overwhelming majority of events and celebrations at city hall are “fantastic” and that the forecourt is “the public place.”
Committee members in the fall of 2020 defeated an initial motion for bollards before another vote green-lit the measure in March 2022.