Hope for Golden Gate Bridge barrier funding

Advocates for a suicide barrier on the Golden Gate Bridge are hailing the passage of a new federal law that makes the bridge district eligible for federal funding for the $45 million project.

"On a scale of 1 to 100, it's a 100," said Paul Muller, a member of the Bridge Rail Foundation, a volunteer organization formed to prevent suicides on the iconic structure. "It's absolutely critical."

He said the law fixes a gap in federal transportation law that restricted funding for suicide barriers.

The new law, signed last week, allows funding for safety rails and nets on bridges and additional safeguards at railroad crossings.

It also clarifies language stating that special purpose districts such as the Golden Gate Bridge District are eligible for the funds.

In the bridge's 75 years, nearly 1,600 people are known to have leapt to their deaths from the bridge linking the North Bay to San Francisco, including 37 last year.

The new law doesn't provide funding, bridge district General Manager Denis Mulligan cautioned.

"But it does make it much more likely," he said. "In the past, only rehabilitation and retrofitting projects were eligible for federal funds."

The district began studying a physical suicide barrier in 2004 and settled on a net system in 2008. The net would hang about 20 feet below the pedestrian deck and run along both sides of the bridge, about 250 feet above the bay.

The $5 million environmental review and design process is nearly complete, bridge district spokeswoman Mary Currie said.

It should be "shovel ready" by the end of next year, Mulligan said.

Because the bridge district board ruled that a physical suicide barrier would not be built using Golden Gate Bridge toll proceeds, the construction is being planned for a combination of potential state or federal grant funds and public donations.

Mulligan said the district will begin seeking funding sources soon, although none have been identified.

Critics have opposed the project because of the cost, changes to the appearance of the bridge and the idea that suicidal people will simply find another way.