Stearns Wharf is getting new guard rails.

The city of Santa Barbara plans to spend about $194,000 to complete the guard rails on the east side of the wharf. The Santa Barbara City Council approved the expenditure at Tuesday’s meeting.

“The main reason for installing a guardrail is public safety,” said Karl Treiberg, waterfront facilities manager. “We’ve always known there were a lot of visitors on the wharf, but didn’t know exactly how many until a couple years ago when we installed a people counter at the foot of the wharf.”

The wharf gets about 1 million pedestrians and 250,000 vehicles a year.

Stearns Wharf was acquired by the city in 1973 from the Castagnola family. The wharf was in a state of disrepair at the time and underwent significant upgrades prior to allowing public access in 1981.

“Stearns Wharf is one of the most, if not the most, visited destinations in Santa Barbara,” Treiberg said. “We have an obligation to keep visitors to the waterfront safe, and therefore we believe that adding a guardrail where there is none would be prudent.”

Treiberg said the installation of the guardrail is in response to a few incidents that have occurred over the years. One in particular, Treiberg said, involved an individual who drove a vehicle off the wharf.

“Fortunately, he had just dropped his family off when he went to park,” Treiberg said. “He hit the accelerator instead of the brake and drove off the wharf into the water. He managed to get out unharmed.”

Treiberg said it’s “somewhat common” for wharves and/or piers to not have guardrails to facilitate the loading and offloading of cargo and passengers. Stearns Wharf was originally constructed as a working wharf, and was when it was acquired and reopened by the city in the early 1980s.

“We will install a section of guardrail that can be easily removed for the loading/offloading of cargo when necessary,” Treiberg said.

Parts of the guard rail will be filled with cables, while others will include wood railings to match the current design.

— Noozhawk staff writer Joshua Molina can be reached at jmolina@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.