BLOOMFIELD — The Port Authority will add fencing on the walkway of the under-construction Goethals Bridge to prevent suicides, Councilman Steven Matteo announced.
The design for the new bridge, expected to be finished in 2017, calls for wider roadways for cars and a walkway for pedestrian and bicycles. After Matteo sent a letter last month to the Port Authority urging preventative measures to stop people jumping from it, the agency agreed to add a nine-foot fence.
"With these protections in place, I think we can all rest a little easier and be certain that these new bridges will be viewed in an exclusively positive light," Matteo said in a statement. "I think government owed it to the public to make them as safe as possible.”
The work includes completely re-surfacing the Outerbridge Crossing and raising the roadway of the Bayonne Bridge to allow large ships to pass underneath — work which has prompted nearby residents to complain.
Work on all the bridges will cost $2.2 billion and is expected to be completed in 2017, the Port Authority previously said.
