Workers crawled through barricades held up by wires and zip ties

The day before the incident, Martin and colleague Eric Turner set up a barricade on the Bedell Bridge on Hodgdon Road using zip ties and wire.

That goes against normal process, Turner said on the first day of the inquest.

They usually use bolts to attach 2×6 timbers to the side posts of the bridge. But they didn’t have the bolt and it was nearing the end of the day, he said.

They were due to bolt it properly the next day, but “it got overlooked,” says Turner.

The next day, no one mentioned Bolt. And when they both took a breather, Turner left the bridge. Martin, meanwhile, walked to the side of the bridge, “put his weight” on the rail, and fell backwards, Turner said.