Casco Bay Bridge

Approach from Commercial Street, up Beach Street

More than 60 women worked during the construction of Casco Bay Bridge, then the Portland Bridge Project, since it began in 1994. The Maine Department of Transportation and the Federal Highways Administration sought to increase the number of women working on the project, because of its scope, by making it “woman friendly.” They provided on-site child care, paid by a payroll deduction of 15 percent of wages for the first child and seven and a half percent for the second. They also hired an on-site compliance officer, who assisted with recruitment, training, and retention and coordinated the project with women and minority-owned business and community groups. Women worked in such positions as welder, quality control technician, truck driver, heavy equipment mechanic, fabricator, carpenter and operating engineer. The new drawbridge replaced the deteriorating Veterans Memorial Bridge and opened to vehicle, foot and bicycle traffic (and shipping traffic passing beneath) in 1997.