Clad in bright orange and yellow vests and hard hats, employees from the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities tried to make the Douglas Bridge a little safer Monday.
They strung chain-link fence along the railing next to the sidewalk on the bridge, spanning the entire length of the bridge. The fencing is going up as a safety precaution, DOT spokesperson Aurah Landau said via email Monday.
There wasn’t an incident that led to the project, she said, but it stemmed from a complaint in early September that the space between the vertical bars on the railing was wide enough for someone or something to fit through.
“There was a concern that the vertical bars in the bridge railing were a bit too wide,” Landau said via email. “The bridge was built to specifications for vertical bar spacing at the time of building, but those specifications have since changed. While DOT&PF is not required to upgrade outside of a renovation project, adding the fencing made sense in this case.”
Specifically, Landau said, the concern was that the spaces were wide enough for a small child to fit through.
• Contact reporter Alex McCarthy at 523-2271 or amccarthy@juneauempire.com. Follow him on Twitter at @akmccarthy.
A crew from the Department of Transportation and Public Facilities installs chain-link fencing along the pedestrian walkway over the Douglas Bridge on Monday, Nov. 26, 2018. (Michael Penn | Juneau Empire)
Rolls of chain-link fencing sit ready to be installed by the Department of Transportation and Public Facilities along the pedestrian walkway over the Douglas Bridge on Monday, Nov. 26, 2018. (Michael Penn | Juneau Empire)
