Golden Gate Bridge to shut down for construction

Golden Gate BridgeFor the first time ever, the Golden Gate Bridge will be shut down for construction during the weekend of January 10th and 11th. Crews will begin work on installing a moveable center median, to prevent head-on crashes, on Friday night. Work is expected to be completed by 4 a.m. Monday morning.

Although no regular traffic will be allowed on the bridge, pedestrians will still be able to walk across the 1.7 mile span, and bridge district transit buses will be running.

As KTVU news reported, since the 1970s, 36 people lost their lives in crashes on the bridge. About half of those fatalities were due to head-on collisions. The new movable center median is heavy enough to stop a car, but its concrete and steel sections can be lifted and shifted to allow lanes to accommodate traffic flows.

“You can’t argue against it,” commuter John Bell of Mill Valley told KTVU, “inconvenience for two or three days is no big deal if it saves lives, it’s a good thing.”

The already narrow Golden Gate Bridge will be six inches narrower once the new barrier is installed.