News

Jan 29, 2024

Suicide barrier study for Newport Pell bridge receives state funding

Funding to support studies on constructing suicide barriers on two Aquidneck

Funding to support studies on constructing suicide barriers on two Aquidneck Island bridges is moving forward at the Statehouse.

An advocacy campaign about preventing suicide attempts off Aquidneck Island's bridges helped secure a million dollars in state funding in the state's FY23 budget, which the Rhode Island Turnpike and Bridge Authority board used to fund a safety barrier feasibility study on the Mount Hope and Jamestown Verrazzano bridges; now, funding for Newport Pell and Sakonnet River bridges has been included in the FY24 House budget.

Suicide prevention advocates, including Melissa Cotta of Bridging the Gap for Healing and Safety, had pushed for $1.5 million to conduct studies on all four of Aquidneck Island's bridges in previous years and were disappointed when the allocation fell short of the price tag for all four studies. However, state Sen. Lou DiPalma and other local legislators took notice of the issue and worked to secure another $750,000 in the FY24 budget for RITBA to complete suicide barrier feasibility studies on the remaining two bridges.

DiPalma told The Daily News he expects the funding to pass easily when the RI House of Representatives meets to discuss and pass the state's FY24 budget on an article-by-article basis on Friday, June 9, starting at 2:30 p.m. He also said he has been in regular contact with RITBA Board of Directors Chairman James Salome and Director Lori Caron Silveira and expects the first two studies, on the Mount Hope and Jamestown Verrazzano bridges, to be completed on schedule in mid-2024.

In a written statement to The Daily News, Cotta said, "Although securing money needed to complete the study of all four bridges is another step in the right direction, it does fall very short of what is truly needed. I’m still hoping bills H6002 and S586 pass this year which will secure the start of bridge barrier construction and provide an established timetable for it."

However, DiPalma – who supports the eventual construction of barriers – stated to The Daily News that neither the House bill nor the Senate bill would pass this year.

"We’re not going to pass the bill," he said. "The bill was there to raise the conversation and the issue and to make sure certain people were aware of the issue … the reason those bills were there was to facilitate the conversation and articulate the need for the $750,000."

Cotta, who has been lobbying on this issue for close to a decade, said she knows of five instances of people dying by suicide in 2023 in incidents involving Aquidneck Island bridges, and says every year that goes by as the legislative process very slowly addresses the problem equates to more lives lost and more families affected by pain and loss.

Study in the works:A suicide barrier study has been approved by RITBA. Why it will only be on two bridges.

"Continued delays mean continued loss of life," she said. "If such delays are going to continue to occur, the state of Rhode Island needs to take emergency action mandating RITBA to put up a temporary barrier or netting system while we wait for the permanent ones to happen…Why is Rhode Island taking so long to get this done?"

When asked about Cotta's perspective that the construction of permanent safety barriers is the ultimate goal, DiPalma said, "She is absolutely right."

"The complementary is you can't build something unless you’ve done the requirements analysis, you can't design unless you’ve done the requirements analysis, and you can't implement unless you’ve done the design … in order to do the requirements, you have to figure out what is feasible … My expectation is that as the feasibility study is completed and the options are provided, we’ll then be able to figure put how to go secure the funding to build the barriers," DiPalma said.

He called the feasibility studies a critical step toward getting barriers built, and both he and Cotta pointed to Tampa Bay's Sunshine Skyway Bridge as an example of a place where the installation of suicide prevention barriers has drastically reduced suicide jumps.

Do they work?:Suicide barriers proven effective on Cape Cod bridges as push in Newport County continues

RITBA Executive Director Lori Caron Silveira said in an e-mail statement, "We appreciate the funding that has been included in the FY24 budget to study the feasibility of safety barriers on additional bridges. The study itself takes approximately 16 months to complete and will move forward as soon as possible."

If you or someone you know might be struggling with suicidal thoughts, you can call or text the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 or 1-800-273-8255, or chat online at 988lifeline.org