Roughly 25 people each year jump to their deaths from San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge, which prompted city leaders to authorize a plan to erect a kind of suicide-prevention stainless steel cable netting twenty feet below the bridge's deck. The netting, which is painted gray to blend in with the water below, has worked wonders on other suicide-prone perches, including the Prince Edward Viaduct. As Global Construction Review reports, the problem for the Golden Gate is that the bids for the construction have come in about $100 million more than the city anticipated (plus a +/- $20 million contingency fund). The project is on hold until January 9th to allow the city to hustle up the additional funding.
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4 Comments
This seems like a large amount of money to waste diverting potential suicides to other, less visible methods of killing themselves. If I lived in San Fransisco I would be pissed.
people who want to do themselves here use Bart or Killtrain - nobody takes goes off the "high board" anymore
I used to live in California and rode the train from santa barbara to LA many times. (Great trip btw!) At least twice, I remember the train coming to a quick stop because someone had jumped on the tracks! One of the times the person didn't make it...
People want to off themselves, they're going to find a way. Money would probably be better spent on homeless and abused children.
A 100 million dollar net? This is a worthy cause but this needs to be re-bid. Think of all the housing or infrastructure you can build with that kind of money.
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