West Gate Bridge Public Safety Barriers

The West Gate Bridge has been fitted with public safety barriers along its length in order to reduce the number of suicides and to deter suicide attempts. The barrier installation also presented an opportunity to investigate other means of enhancing public safety on the bridge and to augment the bridge's architecture. The barriers have been designed in a modular fashion to simplify and increase the safety of installation and maintenance processes. Fitup around the existing bridge structure was one of the most important issues encountered; so too was the need for functional testing of the design proposals to ensure their effectiveness.