Following a series of recent suicides at the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge in Taos, New Mexico officials are again considering the possibility of raising the bridge’s railings, the transportation secretary told lawmakers Thursday.
Three suicides took place over the course of three weeks this month at the 600-foot-high bridge, a landmark about 10 miles northwest of Taos.
Raising the height of the railings seems the “most feasible” option based on the department’s previous research, Cabinet Secretary Ricky Serna told lawmakers on the Legislative Finance Committee at a hearing in Hobbs. The estimated cost could be “somewhere between $12 million and $15 million,” he said, and a consultant is working with the department to draft a detailed plan and price.
Taos County deputies on Sunday recovered the remains of a 15-year-old boy from Taos who had died in the gorge a day earlier, and Serna ordered the bridge closed to pedestrians.
“It’s certainly been a difficult three weeks,” Serna said.
The brief discussion at the legislative hearing came after Rep. Susan Herrera, D-Embudo, asked Serna for an update on “long-term solutions” being explored after the suicides.
“It’s a real tragedy and it impacts the whole community,” Herrera said. “It really does.”
The bridge has been the site of suicides for decades, prompting calls again and again for safety measures.
The Transportation Department installed crisis hotline telephones in 2015 at the bridge that can connect those contemplating suicide with a mental health professional. It also began using private security guards around-the-clock in 2020 to patrol the area.
But physical deterrents, debated for years, have drawn concern from some who argue the bridge could not accommodate the additional weight, oppose them for aesthetic reasons or believe the changes would be too expensive. The Legislature funded a study in 2009 to explore design solutions, but none ended up moving forward.
The Transportation Department then commissioned a plan in 2018 to assess the structural options for various suicide deterrents, and Serna said raising the railings emerged as the best one. Again, nothing moved forward.
A consultant is now working with the department to revisit and update that proposal.
“We’ve asked the consultant to essentially refresh that plan,” Serna said, “to identify, structurally, what we would need to do to increase the strength of the bridge, to achieve that countermeasure that would account for the weight and the wind drag, in particular, that raised railings would create.”
In the shorter term, Serna said there are now three security officers around the clock instead of one. There is one on either side of the bridge to enforce the pedestrian closure and one roving the property to call law enforcement if necessary, he said.
The bridge is closed indefinitely to pedestrians, pending a “viable resolution,” Taos County Sheriff Steve Miera said in a news release Sunday.
There have been at least five suicides at the bridge this year. That’s two more than the annual average since record-keeping began in the 1990s.
A “Youth Rally for Change” is scheduled from noon to 2 p.m. Friday at the bridge, organized by the True Kids 1 Youth Council, which urges people to “raise your voice to raise the rails,” states a flyer on the event.