PD Editorial: Need for bridge work spans generations

It’s been more than 30 years since engineers first proposed installing a movable “zipper” barrier in the middle of the Golden Gate Bridge as a way to prevent a series of nasty head-on collisions that had occurred on the span.

Three decades later, the barrier is finally being installed.

But it won’t be easy, and it won’t be quick, relatively speaking. The installation will require the closure of the bridge for more than 50 straight hours, from one minute after midnight on Saturday to roughly 4 a.m. on Monday - the longest closure in the 77-year history of the bridge.

So what are the estimated 110,000 drivers who normally use the span each day to get to the city supposed to do?

Answer: Stay at home or go around. The options for the latter include taking an alternate route or using public transportation. Golden Gate Transit buses will still be allowed to use the bridge, and the Golden Gate Ferry has bolstered service on both its Larkspur-San Francisco and Sausalito-San Francisco routes for the weekend. It also might be a good time to try cycling as the bridge sidewalks will remain open for bicycles and pedestrians.

So why is this work being done? That’s the better question. The $30 million is intended to prevent head-on collisions, of which there are been none in the past 14 years. Since bridge officials lowered the speed limit on the bridge from 55 mph to?45 mph in 1983 as a safety measure, accidents have declined significantly.

But that still doesn’t eliminate the need or justification for a barrier. Overall, since 1970, there have been 36 traffic fatalities on the bridge, including 16 head-on collisions. Up to now, all that separates drivers going in opposite directions is a series of 19-inch plastic pylons, which have to be moved manually by workers leaning out from the back of a truck. Who doesn’t grip the steering wheel a little tighter when crossing the 1.7-mile span in the far left lane?

In addition to saving lives, the one-foot-wide zipper barrier of concrete and steel will allow for easier lane configuration changes in responding to traffic flow.

It’s an improvement that’s needed. The next will be a suicide net, which the bridge board authorized last year. The stainless steel net is expected to be installed over the next three to four years at a cost of $76 million, most of it in federal funds. The net is intended to stem the tide of suicides, of which there are been more than 1,400 since the bridge opened in 1937, including a record 46 in 2013 alone.

The net won’t stop all such deaths, just as the barrier won’t prevent all accidents. But they will go far in altering the bridge’s reputation as a place of bereavement in favor of its greater distinction as an engineering marvel amid a place of great beauty.