Caltrans officials and proponents of Caltrans' plans to build a suicide prevention barrier along the Cold Spring Canyon Bridge held public meetings in Santa Barbara and Solvang this week to explain the project and their rationale, and present a draft environmental impact report.

Outside of the Solvang meeting Tuesday, a representative of Friends of the Cold Spring Canyon Bridge, which is opposed to construction of a barrier, made a different type of presentation.

“This is real money portraying the real cost for this boondoggle of a barrier,” Mark McGinnes said as he threaded dollar bills through a section of chainlink fence.

Inside Tuesday's meeting at Solvang's Veteran's Memorial Building, Caltrans officials, Santa Barbara County sheriff's representatives and 3rd District County Supervisor Brooks Firestone, whose district includes the Cold Spring Bridge, waited to answer questions from the public. They all support construction of a barrier.

At the meeting and another one Monday in Santa Barbara, Caltrans presented information on the project, including pictures of what the barrier may look like. Spoken and written comments on the draft environmental impact report were collected at the two meetings, and written comments received before June 24 will be addressed in the final report.

After that deadline, Caltrans will create the final report over the next several months, then release the final EIR for another brief public comment period.

Then Caltrans officials will decide whether to certify the final report as accurate, and either approve or reject the barrier project.

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Caltrans spokesman Jim Shivers said the bridge suicide barrier would be a first for Caltrans, but would be an appropriate use of funds.

Law enforcement, community groups, local politicians and Caltrans began meeting in 2005 to discuss suicide deterrents for Cold Spring Bridge, which has been the site of 44 suicides since its construction in 1963.

The high, arching bridge spanning Cold Spring Canyon on Highway 154 is the most suicide-prone location of Caltrans property in Santa Barbara and surrounding counties, transportation officials said.

“It acts as inspiration for a bad conclusion,” Firestone said at the meeting.

The group determined that a permanent fence, curving inward above both rails of the bridge, would be the “most efficient” method of stopping suicide attempts at the site, and their report concludes that it would also help deter people from attempting suicide elsewhere by giving them time to reconsider their actions.

Most recent Caltrans estimates put the construction cost as high as $1 million. Shivers said the project's total cost of about $3 million includes an additional $2 million in study, design, and public outreach costs.

McGinnes and the Friends of the Bridge group have criticized the project, which would be funded through the State Highway Operations and Protection Program, arguing that such safety funding could be better used to cut down on traffic accident deaths.

“We don't have a sliding scale for the loss of life,” Shivers said, adding that funding for a bridge barrier would not detract from other area funding for road safety, and would improve safety on Caltrans property.

Opponents to the project, which Friends of the Bridge say include the Santa Barbara Taxpayers Association, Santa Barbara Trust for Historic Preservation, Los Padres Chapter of the Sierra Club, and Women's Environmental Watch, have also questioned the visual impacts of installing a fence atop the soaring bridge.

The draft environmental study states that “the project is anticipated to result in substantial adverse impacts to the visual environment.” Caltrans spokespeople say a group of eight architects, and historians from the Santa Barbara and Santa Ynez areas, have been meeting with Caltrans to discuss ways to minimize the visual impact.

“I wanted to see what the actual concept would look like,” Karen Summer of Santa Barbara said at the Solvang meeting.

Summer said she had been concerned that the barrier would look much like the simple mesh fence that McGinnes had set up just outside the meeting room. Instead, she said, she was pleased by the early design concept.

“I think it looks very sleek. I like that you can see through it,” Summer said of the two preliminary fence designs on display at the meeting.

The most contentious point of debate between the Friends of the Bridge and barrier supporters is whether suicidal people would merely find some other way to commit suicide if the barrier was put up.

“This is just about Caltrans trying to get rid of the responsibility. A barrier won't save lives,” McGinnes said.

The Santa Barbara-based Glendon Association, which specializes in suicide prevention, claims otherwise, and has supported the barrier.

“We have statistics that prove restriction of means leads to lower suicide rates,” Jamie Rotnofsky, a doctor of psychology and Glendon Association consultant said. “There really is no debate in my mind.”

Friends of the Bridge presented their own suicide prevention proposal, called a “Human Barrier,” that proposes using

24-hour video monitoring and crisis hotline phones at both ends of the bridge.

The draft EIR lists the approach as a project alternative that was considered but rejected after discussion. The county sheriff's office estimates that even if an officer were free at the time someone was seen on the bridge, the response time would be 15 minutes.

Rotnofsky said she wondered where the funding and manpower to maintain and monitor the video would come from. She said there are already plans to add a suicide hotline phone to the roadway emergency phone near the bridge.

Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Commander Dominick Palera said the barrier plan is endorsed by Sheriff Bill Brown. He said a barrier would make the bridge a safer place for law enforcement, who put their lives in jeopardy when trying to “talk down” a suicidal person, or during the difficult recovery of a body.

“The 32-inch rail (that now lines both sides of the bridge), from our standpoint, is just unacceptable,” Palera said.

Caltrans' District 5 director is expected to decide whether to approve a final barrier design this winter, and accept the findings of the environmental review by the end of the year.

Construction of the barrier is scheduled for the summer of 2010 and is expected to last two months - resulting in partial closure of the bridge.

More information on the suicide barrier, and other Caltrans District 5 projects, are available on the Web site http://dot.ca.gov/

dist05/projects/#sb.

Glenn Wallace can be reached at 737-1059 or gwallace@santamariatimes.com.

June 12, 2008