 Robert
Guernsey has taken an unusual approach in trying to break
the Golden Gate Bridge Board’s long-standing resistance
to a median barrier to prevent head-on crashes on the famous
span. Guernsey, a San Anselmo inventor, is proposing that
three barriers be built on the bridge. The barriers would
be built into a 2” x 6" inch grooves cut into the road
surface along the three inside lane markers and would be
fully retractable- meaning they would become part of the
road surface when not in use.
 When
activated by a computerized control system, pistons driven
by air-pneumatic pressure would force all of the six-inch
steel barriers out of the road to create a formidable obstacle
to head-on crash. Deciding which barrier to use would depend
on which direction the heaviest commute is occurring. Bridge
directors have long claimed, a barrier must be Movable so
that four traffic lanes can be maintained in either direction
during heavy commutes.
“You could raise and lower the barrier without having workers
risking their lives out on the bridge placing and removing
cones” that are currently used to divide opposing traffic,
Guernsey said. Guernsey unveiled his “Retractable Delineator
System,” the fruit of three years’ work, yesterday at the
Marin Civic Center in San Rafael. Because it is much narrower
than existing models, Guernsey says it answers the bridge
district’s long-held stance that a barrier would take up
too much room on a span where traffic lanes are unusually
narrow.
Guernsey's barrier has even prompted one bridge director,
Marin Supervisor Hal Brown, to say it’s an “exciting” development
in the search for I ways to make the bridge safer for motorists.
The premiere adds further steam to the median barrier issue,
which has been rekindled by a head-on crash victim’s lawsuit
and an ongoing petition drive to provide voters the chance
to demand further studies on a barrier’s feasibility.
Until now, the most accepted form of Movable barrier is
made of concrete slabs connected by pliable steel belts.
Bridge directors have long held that such a barrier is unworkable
because its two-foot thickness would take up too much space
on a span where traffic lanes already are unusually narrow.
Guernsey says his barriers answer that concern “because
they’re no wider than the lines dividing traffic lanes,
give or take a few inches.”
The one sticking point: an estimated price tag of up to
$20 million. Brown, the one Bridge Board member who attended
yesterday’s unveiling, said Guernsey’s system causes him
to believe that the Bridge Board should reconsider its stance
that a barrier to prevent head-on crashes is unworkable.
“I don’t think there’s ever been an invention like this
that’s ever been brought before the board before,” he said.
But Carney Campion,
the district’s general manager, said he resented Guernsey’s
attempt to gain accolades through the news media before
even approaching bridge engineers. Chairman-Robert Guernsey,
A Conceptualist in Designs & Engineering, made a requested
in September of 1995, to the president of the Board; Mr.
Robert McDonald, to go before the full Board of Directors
for a presentation of the patented Retractable Delineator
System. His request was declined. This action forced Mr.
Guernsey to hold a press conference on February 20, 1996
in San Rafael, to show the public that a Movable Median
Traffic Barrier would work on the world famous Golden Gate
Bridge.
“We’ve been
inviting him to present his idea to us for three years so
we could try to stop his attempt in traffic safety on our
span, and he’s never come to a meeting,” Campion said. “If
he’s going to do something with our structure, he should
at least let us give our two cents about what will work.”
Even Brown admitted the high cost of such a barrier means
tax payers would likely be asked to foe at least some of
the bill.
Guernsey, whose
inventions include a spring loaded "Belt Lock Clip"
to hold a Stanley tape measures, walkman brand radio, and
cellular telephones, said he plans to approach the Bridge
Board with his newest invention, but not until petition
drive to put the barrier issue before Marin voters gains
more steam.
Fairfax resident,
Lucien Remy is helping Robert Guernsey in leading a drive
to place an advisor initiative before Marin voters in November
that would ask the Bridge Board to launch new studies into
ways of preventing head-on crashes, including new barrier
concepts and "New Ideas" for safety on the bridge.
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