Golden Gate Bridge barrier expected next year

This photo illustration shows what the planned median barrier would look like when it replaces the yellow plastic tubes. This photo illustration shows what the planned median barrier would look like when it replaces the yellow plastic tubes. Photo: HO Photo: HO Image 1 of / 3 Caption Close Golden Gate Bridge barrier expected next year 1 / 3 Back to Gallery

Those harrowing drives across the Golden Gate Bridge with oncoming traffic inches away, separated only by a row of yellow plastic tubes, will in all likelihood come to an end next year with the arrival of a slender steel-and-concrete movable median barrier.

After 15 years of planning and searching for funding, the bridge district's Board of Directors is expected to approve the purchase of the $26.5 million barrier - designed to prevent head-on collisions - at meetings Thursday and Friday.

The barrier would be installed in late October or early November of 2014 during a 52-hour weekend closure - the longest in the landmark bridge's history.

"This is a long time coming," said Mary Currie, bridge district spokeswoman.

Talk of a median barrier has gone on for years, and picked up speed after a series of fatal head-on crashes in 1996. Since 1970, 36 people have died in accidents on the bridge, 16 in cross-over smash-ups. Bridge officials say the rate of accidents has slowed since the 1980s, when a 45 mph speed limit was imposed and speed enforcement boosted.

The last fatal head-on collision was in 2001. However, the barrier has been in the news recently with a December head-on crash that caused three minor injuries, and a state Supreme Court ruling in March against a Mill Valley doctor who sued the bridge district for its slowness in installing a barrier after a 2008 head-on crash left her paralyzed.

Bridge directors approved the concept of a movable barrier in 1998 and a feasibility study was completed, but the project stalled for five years in the early 2000s because of a lack of funding.

The Metropolitan Transportation Commission put the barrier project back on track in 2008, giving the bridge district $20 million. About $5 million of the cost comes from toll money, and the state and federal governments are covering the rest. It took five years to complete environmental and wind tunnel studies and to finish the design and construction plans.

Lindsay Transportation Systems would build the barrier at 12 inches wide, 32 inches tall and 11,538 feet long. It would consist of steel walls filled with compressed concrete in attached segments that would be moved with a pair of "zipper trucks" to adjust lane configurations on the six-lane span.

Bridge officials looked at ways to install the barrier without a complete closure of the bridge, which carries about 110,000 vehicles a day. But Currie said a closure, beginning on a Friday night and concluding in the early morning hours on a Monday, was found to cause the least disruption.