Hong Kong installs HK$5m ‘anti-terrorism’ crash bollards outside Causeway Bay dep’t store

Hong Kong authorities have installed “anti-terrorism” collision bollards outside a shopping mall in Causeway Bay, one of the city’s busiest shopping districts – a project with a HK$5 million price tag.

The bollards, which were still wrapped in foam sheeting on Thursday morning, were initially proposed in January by the police, the Transport Department, and the Highways Department as part of a counter-terrorism working group.

The provisional budget of HK$5 million also includes maintenance costs for the bollards, according to a document submitted to the Wan Chai District Council. The bollards were planned for installation outside 555 Hennessy Road and along Paterson Street.

Meeting records show that the working group proposed installing 60 anti-collision bollards, including 43 fixed bollards and 17 retractable ones.

“Sufficient spacing would be left between the bollards so that wheelchairs, baby strollers and stretchers could pass through smoothly without being obstructed,” it said.

Noting that Causeway Bay is a “core business district and tourist area” on Hong Kong Island with heavy foot traffic, the police said that “[i]f vehicles were to ram into crowds at the location, serious casualties could result.”

“Through these facilities, the most direct physical separation method could be used to effectively prevent vehicles from deliberately ramming into pedestrian areas, thereby minimising the risk of casualties,” it said.

The area outside the Sogo shopping mall historically served as a major gathering zone for protests in Hong Kong, and is a stone’s throw away from Victoria Park, the former site of the city’s Tiananmen Square crackdown vigils.

In recent years, police officers have maintained a heavy presence around Victoria Park and Causeway Bay on the anniversary of the crackdown on June 4, stopping and detaining activists and individuals who engaged in symbolic acts of mourning.

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James Lee is a reporter at Hong Kong Free Press with an interest in culture and social issues. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in English and a minor in Journalism from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, where he witnessed the institution’s transformation over the course of the 2019 extradition bill protests and after the passing of the Beijing-imposed security law.

Since joining HKFP in 2023, he has covered local politics, the city’s housing crisis, as well as landmark court cases including the 47 democrats national security trial. He was previously a reporter at The Standard where he interviewed pro-establishment heavyweights and extensively covered the Covid-19 pandemic and Hong Kong’s political overhauls under the national security law.