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Aug 08, 2023

Building suicide

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Construction on the Golden Gate Bridge's long-delayed suicide prevention net is expected to take four years and could disrupt traffic at times, officials said Thursday.

A committee of the Golden Gate Bridge Highway and Transportation District, the iconic structure's governing body, recommended an allocation of $2 million to the California Highway Patrol to facilitate traffic flow while workers install the net. The project is expected to start this year and finish in 2021.

The proposal, which must be approved by the agency's board of directors Friday, would pay the CHP for opening and closing designated lanes at night, when the bulk of the work is expected to occur. The construction is scheduled for nighttime because less cars are on the road.

If funded, the CHP officers will also enforce reduced speed limits while contractors work on the nets, at times using lanes to stage workers and equipment. The exact hours of the night work have not been disclosed.

The construction of a steel net about 20 feet below the bridge and 20 feet out from its edges faced deep questions after the board's 2014 cost projection of $76 million almost doubled when the first bids came in last year.

Thanks to a recent infusion of funding from three sources — the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, Caltrans and the bridge district — the $192.3 million project will move forward this year, said Priya Clemens, a spokeswoman for the bridge district.

Included in the cost is the $2 million in CHP funding, as well as $33.1 million budgeted for construction engineering, which includes compliance with environmental regulations that can be costly, according to the committee's report.

The first signs of construction will be fencing along the bridge which will stay up until the net is in place, Clemens said.

Transit authorities and politicians had been broaching the idea of a suicide net for years, but questions of cost and necessity plagued the project. Some argued that would-be jumpers deterred from the bridge would simply find another place to end their life, an assertion that has been disproved by multiple studies according to Eve Meyer, executive director of San Francisco Suicide Prevention.

People have been known to travel from all over California to jump from the Golden Gate Bridge. In 2016, there were 39 suicides, Clemens said, and 184 successful interventions by bridge patrol officers.

Michael Bodley is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: [email protected] Twitter: @michael_bodley