If you have driven down Sparks or Eby recently you have probably seen the signs re-routing you around the construction on the 4700 block of Walsh, but have you been offended by them?
The contracting company who was hired by the city to do the work admits that some of its signs discriminate against female employees.
“We never even thought about it until after they were up,” explained Darren Bjorgaard, the site superintendent from Bear Creek Contracting.
He concedes that the four “Men Working” signs facing both lanes of traffic on Sparks and Eby are sexist and promises that future signs will not use the word ‘men’.
“We did think about it after-the-fact and next time we will write something different,” said Bjorgaard.
“We will write ‘people working’ or ‘construction workers working’ or maybe even ‘civil engineers working.’”
However, he says the company did not think it would be a problem to keep the signs up and there are no plans to change the words on them for this project.
There is one female construction worker on the site for Bear Creek and Bjorgaard describes the worker, Sarah Marchand, as a great employee. He says that in future, signs will not discriminate against her.
“She’s awesome, she’s the hardest worker we have,” he noted.
Construction on the block was initiated by the city this year to fix the stretch of road that was marked by potholes and a badly broken surface.
Civil engineers are currently working on installing new pipes under the street.
