Stainless steel rods create a barrier to suicidal tendencies. By Virginia Heffernan

Nickel magazine, October, 2003 -- A new stainless steel barrier will prevent further suicides at the Bloor Street Viaduct in Toronto, Ontario where the number of people jumping to their deaths once rivaled the suicide rate for the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, California.

The barrier consists of some 9,000 vertical rods designed to create a "luminous veil" around the 84-year-old viaduct, whose original construction was described in Michael Ondaatje's award-winning novel In the Skin of a Lion. A structural steel frame holds the rods in place along the 500-metre-long historic landmark.

More than 17 tonnes of S31600 stainless steel, containing 12% nickel, were used to make the 5-metre long, 8-millimetre-diameter rods, says Mike Laidlaw, project manager for Toronto's city engineering department. The veil design, which packs the slender rods close enough together to prevent people slipping between them while preserving the view from the bridge, won the 1999 Canadian Architect Award of Excellence.

The designer, Derek Revington, initially considered other materials, including galvanized wire rope, says Laidlaw, but in the end, they decided stainless steel would do the best job of minimizing deflection under lateral loads, while reducing the cost of connections. There were also aesthetic considerations.

"Since this structure has historic significance and since the addition of the barrier was viewed to be an artistic element that would enhance the bridge, stainless steel was selected over galvanized materials," Laidlaw explains. The durability and low maintenance attributes of stainless steel were also taken into account.

Since the Bloor Street Viaduct was built in 1919, more than 400 people have jumped from the bridge to their deaths. The Schizophrenia Society that lobbied for the C$6-million barrier says similar efforts at other "suicide magnets," such as the Empire State Building and the Eiffel Tower, have prevented impulsive jumps by the mentally ill.

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