Design
The new Casco Bay Bridge has four 12 foot (3.7 m) wide lanes, with a pedestrian lane on its eastern side. The bridge is supported by several 7 foot (2.1m meter) thick concrete H-pile cylinders, which the bridge's steel girders sit atop. The new bridge has much higher horizontal and vertical clearances, which allow larger ships access further into the Fore River, with the bascule also having to open less frequently. Extra precautions were taken to ensure that the bridge had sufficient pier protection (during construction to the bridge, the existing Million Dollar Bridge was struck at its piers by the oil tanker Julie N., which spilled roughly 179,600 gallons (679,860 liters) of heating oil into Casco Bay). The bridge's steelwork was painted red in order to make it aesthetically pleasing.
The final cost for the Casco Bay Bridge was $130 million, making it the largest project undertaken by the Maine Department of Transportation at the time.
Read more about this topic: Casco Bay Bridge
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—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)