Workers began on Monday to install barriers along the Penobscot Narrows Bridge to deter people from jumping off it.
The curved chain-link fence along the existing bridge rails should be in place and the project completed by early July, according to the Maine Department of Transportation.
A lane closure and construction schedule wasn’t yet available from the project contractors, department spokesperson Damian Veilleux said Monday. One lane of the bridge was closed with flaggers directing traffic when a reporter drove across the bridge that afternoon.
The contractor, BMB Construction of Holden, has a July 2 deadline to complete the project. If the project is completed ahead of schedule, the department will offer the contractor $1,000 for each day before the deadline, up to $30,000.
The bridge connecting the towns of Prospect and Verona over the Penobscot River has been the site of at least a dozen suicides since it opened in 2006 to replace the Waldo-Hancock Bridge.
For more than a decade, advocates have said installing barriers will save lives by giving people time to reconsider, using as an example the construction of similar barriers on Augusta’s Memorial Bridge. No suicides were recorded in the 23 years after, compared to 14 in the 23 years before.
State lawmakers eventually approved the construction of the safety fences on the Penobscot Narrows Bridge for a cost of up to $2 million in June 2023. Construction was delayed about a year to do more testing on how the barrier design would be affected by wind.
