The City of Columbia is moving on to the next phase of safety upgrades at the Fifth and Walnut streets parking garage following more than one-half dozen suicides from the structure since its opening in 2011. 

The Columbia City Council authorized the city to seek bids to place metal screen coverings over window spaces on the upper levels of the garage, according to plans attached to Monday's council agenda. 

Columbia Public Works is working with the city's purchasing department to establish a bid period timeline, wrote John Ogan, public works spokesperson in an email. 

More: New safety barriers under construction in Columbia at Fifth and Walnut parking garage

Bid approval will happen by the city.

Once approved, the construction timeline will depend largely on availability of steel and how soon a manufacturer could fill the order, Ogan wrote. The city does aim a summer start date, according to the staff letter attached to the council agenda. 

"This is a custom project with 150 openings at the garage of varying lengths," Ogan wrote. "Because of the varying lengths of the openings, the design could potentially use a panel-based approach."

More: Upper levels of Fifth and Walnut Parking Garage closed off ahead of safety upgrades

So a standard-size panel could be created, with each opening needing a specific number of panels, he added. This would all depend on the length of the opening. 

The estimated construction cost for this phase of the safety project is $504,000, which will come from the city's general fund. 

The first phase of the safety project was installing fences with an inward bow at the top level of the nine-story garage by Central Fence LLC of Vienna. They were installed in January. 

Research on safety upgrades for the garage date back to 2019. 

Each floor of the garage has security cameras and funds were appropriated in October 2020 for the first phase of the project. 

More: City of Columbia receives bid for safety improvements at parking garage known for suicides

Temporary actions were taken ahead of the construction of the fences, such as temporarily closing down the top two levels of the garage ahead of fence construction. 

The timeline from research, to funding approval, to authorizing bids was down to the COVID-19 pandemic and supply chain limitation, city spokesperson Sydney Olsen said in September. 

Using safety barriers such as fences or window screens work as a deterrent for someone who may be suicidal, said Jill Harkavy-Friedman, American Foundation for Suicide Prevention vice president of research, in 2019.

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“We know that people use what’s accessible,” she said at the time. “That’s the issue with something like parking garages. It’s a problem all over the country. And it’s a problem with a relatively simple solution, which is barriers or fences. Research shows that when you limit access to lethal means, then you can save lives.

"... Barriers give time. It gives time for the crisis to slow down a little bit for the person to get their thinking together a little bit more.”

The National Suicide Hotline can be reached at 1-800-273-8255 and is always open. The Missouri Department of Mental Health also has resources through its website.

The Mid-Missouri Crisis Line is 1-800-395-2132 and the Missouri Suicide/Crisis Hotline is 314-469-6644.