Region studying safety barriers for Burgoyne Bridge
Barriers likely to cost between $2.5-$5 million and not likely installed until summer
The process of possibly installing safety barriers on the Burgoyne Bridge has begun, but construction likely won’t begin until the summer, says Niagara Region.
Ron Tripp, the Region’s commissioner of public works, said the consultant hired to design the bridge is currently examining options of erecting barriers. A report is expected to be presented to the public health and social services committee in January.
After that, a recommendation may be brought to regional council, Tripp said. If council votes to install barriers, it will likely
take until the summer before construction begins.
A proper design and procurement process along with winter weather makes retrofitting the bridge any sooner difficult, he said.
Niagara acting medical officer of health Dr. Mustafa Hirji said adding barriers to the bridge could cost between $2.5 and $5 million.
The public health departmentled suicide prevention task force began looking into adding barriers to the bridge last month following several suicides at the bridge.
Tripp said safety barriers were briefly considered during the early phases of the bridge design — largely as a measure to prevent people from throwing anything over the bridge onto the highway underneath and to protect people from accidentally falling.
At the time of the initial design, which Tripp was not part of, suicide prevention was not considered a front-burner issue.
Hirji said recent deaths notwithstanding, historic data shows the bridge was not a hot spot for suicides.
The City of St. Catharines, the Region and the Ministry of Transportation did not have policies requiring safety barriers for the bridge when it was designed Tripp said, and the Region relied on the Canadian Highway Bridge Design Code, which also did not call for barriers.
However, given the recent deaths, the task force began looking at barriers as a way to prevent future deaths. Recent studies have shown barriers save lives.
This week, St. Catharines city council passed a motion asking for the Region to install barriers.
Ideally, Tripp said, the installation would not involve drilling into the bridge, which is supposed to last for at least a century. He said Parsons is looking at options that will use the existing structure’s railing and bolts. The January report will lay out the possibilities.
In addition to looking at safety barriers, Hirji said the suicide prevention task force is also trying to pull together data from police, Niagara EMS and the provincial coroner’s office to get a fuller picture of suicide in Niagara.
The task is not just a matter of number crunching, he said, because there is no uniform method of classifying incidents across agencies. He pointed out, for instance, that raw data from the Niagara Regional Police about calls to the bridge do not show the number of suicides or suicide attempts.