A contract for work related to a moveable median barrier on the Golden Gate Bridge is now going out for bids, and the traffic separator could be on the span as soon as October, according to officials.

The bridge district has purchased the barrier, which will prevent potentially deadly head-on accidents, and is being constructed by Barrier Systems Inc., a subsidiary of Vacaville-based Lindsay Corp.

Because the barrier needs to be assembled on the span, the bridge will have to be closed for 52 hours. The bridge has been closed only for weather, namely high winds, but never for much more than three hours, bridge officials said. In 1987 it was closed to vehicle traffic for the span’s 50th birthday, but was open to pedestrians.

“There will be a full closure sometime in late October, from late Friday through Sunday,” said Mary Currie, bridge district spokeswoman.

Now the district is seeking bids for ancillary work as part of the project: road work, demolition of four toll booths to make room for the barrier and equipment, and installation of crash cushions at the toll plaza, among other tasks. The bids are due April 1.

“Things are progressing on the project very well,” Ewa Bauer, district engineer, reported to the bridge board last week.

The district has the money for the $26.5 million project, in large part because the Metropolitan Transportation Commission handed over $20 million in federal grants. Toll revenue and other grant funds will pay the balance.

A two-foot-wide moveable median barrier is in use on the new Doyle Drive just south of the Golden Gate Bridge, but on the span freeway-speed traffic remains separated by only small, yellow tubes sticking up between lanes. Workers on a truck place those rubber, 19-inch-high tubes by hand on the roadway every 25 feet to separate traffic.

But by the end of this year bridge officials say two “zipper” trucks will move a one-foot-wide, 32-inch-high barrier made of high-density concrete clad in steel and tightly pinned together to form a semi-rigid structure. No international orange paint will be used for the barrier, but rather a galvanized gray. The barrier will be made of more than 800 blocks that weigh 1,500 pounds each.

The barrier will rest on the bridge with gravity holding it in place, but is strong enough to absorb major impacts without moving because of an internal spring system.

There have been 36 fatalities on the span since 1971, the last on July 3, 2001, with 16 fatalities occurring in head-on crashes. During that time, there have been more than 1.7 billion vehicle crossings; about 40 million cars a year cross the 1.7-mile bridge.

Contact Mark Prado via email at mprado@marinij.com