![]() While locals have floated the idea of adding some kind of barrier since the 1940s, just years after the bridge opened, discussions about the current project got started about a decade ago. Priya Clemens, spokesperson for the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District, says that increase is partly due to the “experimental” nature of the project, which led designers to underestimate how much it would actually cost to attach a net of this size across more than a mile and a half of open water and windy air. She describes the barrier as “a suicide deterrent system that will save countless lives” and “an achievement years in the making.”Įxpected to be finished by 2021, the project initially estimated to cost $76 million now has a price tag of over $200 million. But for too many families in our community, it has also been a place of pain,” Pelosi, who represents the San Francisco area in Congress, told TIME in a statement on Wednesday. In the 1970s and ’80s, the bridge district studied other proposals, mostly railings or fencing with horizontal wires that become slack and harder to maneuver as people climb them.“The Golden Gate Bridge is a source of immense pride to San Francisco. ![]() More recent ideas for a suicide barrier date back to the 1950s, when officials considered stringing barbed wire above the rail. 17, 1937, 12 men fell to the water after a section of scaffold tore through the safety net. The first was Kermit Moore, who fell on Oct. The net saved 19 men who fell into it, becoming members of what was informally known as the “Halfway-to-Hell Club.”Įven so, deaths occurred during bridge construction. It extended 10 feet outside the trusses on both sides. The $130,000 net was made of manila rope, 3/8 inches in diameter and forming 6 inches of square mesh. The mesh will be gray to match the color of the frequent fog and the color of the water below.Īs the bridge was being built, a safety net was suspended along the entire length of the span from pylon to pylon. The brackets, painted the same distinctive "international orange" as the span and towers, will be 50 feet apart. Source: Golden Gate Bridge Highway & Transportation District.The net will be made of 385,000 square feet of marine-grade stainless steel that will be hung on steel cantilever brackets. Project funding was secured from federal, state and regional sources, with large shares coming from Caltrans, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, and the bridge district.Īrtist's view of the suicide deterrence barrier. New reports say that the board did not quite grasp the complexity of the design and engineering, or the challenge of bringing heavy equipment into a difficult environment 250 feet above the water. The $211 million price tag is about three times what the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District Board of Directors proposed when it put the project out for bid in 2014. won the contract to design and build the net. Oakland companies Shimmick Construction Co. ![]() Mental health experts hope that when the nets are completed in 2021, the deaths will stop. The bridge is one of the world’s top destinations for suicides, news reports quote Denis Mulligan, general manager of the bridge district, as saying. They also began creating detailed measurements for use in manufacturing the stainless steel net.īridge officials say that nearly 1,700 people have fallen to their deaths since the landmark opened in 1937, including 14 to date in 2018. In May 2017, contractors began installing temporary fencing along the bridge approaches and around the tower legs. Source: Golden Gate NRAThe total cost is $211 million, which includes construction ($204 million), design and environmental expenses. (Click to enlarge.) Golden Gate Bridge under construction. The suicide barrier will be built over several years, with an expected completion date in 2021. ![]() It will be located 20 feet down from the sidewalk and extend 20 feet out, over the water. The net will span 1.7 miles of roadway on each side. ![]()
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