PORTLAND, Maine — The Maine Department of Transportation is working to install fencing under the Casco Bay Bridge over the Fore River, where one of Portland's largest homeless encampments is located.
The fencing is being installed along Commercial Street, forcing the displacement of several tents set up in that area. The greenspace there is called Harbor View Memorial Park.
Signs warning about the fencing plans were distributed in that area beginning Dec. 1, Maine DOT spokesperson Paul Merrill said.
According to the City of Portland Unhouse Community Dashboard, about 110 tents are located along Commercial Street, when the website was checked Friday morning.
The work began Tuesday and was expected to last until Friday.
According to Merrill, there were several reasons for the installation.
"We want to prevent anyone from being hit by falling snow and ice when the bridge is plowed (by the City of South Portland) during snowstorms," Merrill wrote in an email to NEWS CENTER Maine. "We also need space to do maintenance under the bridge."
Merrill noted that a sewage pipe with a broken heating element under the bridge was at risk of freezing during low temperatures and requires regular access.
The fencing, he clarified, is not going around the encampment but spans the width of the bridge and goes out 25 feet in either direction.
Merrill also expressed concern about fires under the bridge.
Two fatal tent fires among the unhoused populations in Sanford and Portland occurred in late November, prompting concerns among the community and public safety officials.
On Nov. 20, the week before the fatal fires happened, Portland Fire Chief Keith Gautreau told Portland City Councilors the living conditions inside the encampments were a "recipe for disaster" while recounting a fire the department responded to along the Eastern Promenade.
"On arrival, our fire companies encountered two propane tanks exploding before we could really go in and make sure this was safe," Gautreau said.
In a news release issued by the city of Portland on Friday, the city's Homeless Services Center is actively working to continue to find shelter for the unhoused population as winter continues to set in.
Danielle Smaha, the communications director for Preble Street, said Friday in a news release that the city planned to sweep the encampment on Tuesday, Dec. 19.