Changing the face of Charleston : The unbuilding of the Grace and Pearman Bridges
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Unbuilding Highlights
(Apr 10)
Meeting St. Stories
(Jul 10 2006)
East Bay Stories
(Oct 10 2006)
Drum Island Stories
(Feb 17)
Pearman Bridge Stories
(Apr 3)
Grace Bridge Stories
(Apr 3)
Imposions: Prep and boom
(Mar 27)
Unbuilding Bridge Blog
(July 23 2006)
Unbuilding Challenges
(Mar 13)
Learning Links
(Feb 20)
Unbuilding Stories
(Mar 13)
Video and Sounds
(Feb 28)
New insights into controlled implosions - Mickey, Ken and their team
Click a photo below for a link to that story. For a display of all stories, click here.


October 05, 2005 12:31
Dropping a Pearman column just like dropping a tree - almost

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October 11, 2005 10:00
Dropping the Town Creek segment of the Pearman Bridge

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October 22, 2005 10:53
Preparing the Pearman piers for blasting

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November 15, 2005 10:03
Dropping the Drum Island cantilevered section of the Pearman

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November 30, 2005 6:30
Loading and sequencing D-25 with explosives

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November 30, 2005 15:53
Imploding Pearman Pier D-25

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December 06, 2005 10:01
Dropping the Town Creek Section of the Grace Bridge

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December 16, 2005 14:01
Dropping Pearman piers M1-M5 with style

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January 09, 2006 10:04
Early start, loading and imploding Pearman D-24

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January 11, 2006 15:01
Practice makes perfect: Dropping D-27 with remote ignition

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January 17, 2006 15:57
Mickey and his ABS team drop D-23 and top D-25

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January 18, 2006 13:36
Gone is T4 - the last Drum Island Pearman support

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January 22, 2006 11:45
Mickey Rogers and his ABS team

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January 24, 2006 15:05
Drilling the T4 base for explosive disassembly

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January 25, 2006 14:05
Adventures with Captain Bill's jackup barge and Mickey's drilling team

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January 26, 2006 15:00
Blasting the T-4 foundation, removing Grace's off ramp and ironworker acrobats

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January 28, 2006 8:26
The Mt. Pleasant pier foundation

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January 30, 2006 11:53
Blasting D-23 substructure

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February 02, 2006 7:34
A golden early morning and loading D-24

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February 02, 2006 11:35
Unbuilding the D-24 substructure

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February 07, 2006 14:01
Blasting the foundation of Pearman pier D-26

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February 14, 2006 10:00
Implosion of D-25 substructure

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February 15, 2006 10:00
Explosive fracture of the Grace Cantilever Truss

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February 16, 2006 15:00
ABS imploding the M5 Pearman substructure

feb_16_mickey_013_m5.jpg
March 22, 2006 15:01
T-3 and Frank say bye bye

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April 04, 2006 14:00
D-27 Substructure. Mickey and his team do it again

apr_04_sparky_075_D27.jpg
April 05, 2006 9:00
Demolition Dynamics: Dropping the east Pearman cantilever

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April 11, 2006 14:30
Planting explosives on the truss between P-11 and P-13

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April 12, 2006 9:59
Grace trusses between P-11 and P-13 down

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April 28, 2006 10:00
Bye bye Grace (Mt. Pleasant side)

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May 16, 2006 8:57
The Last Grace Blast and a tribute from the C-17s and F-15s

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May 23, 2006 8:40
Oscar and the team preparing for the last Pearman blast

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May 24, 2006 10:00
Bye bye to the last Pearman superstructure

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June 05, 2006 15:00
Blowing P-12

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June 05, 2006 16:10
Drilling the footing with a template - prep for P-11 blast

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June 07, 2006 12:57
Preparing to unbuild P-11: A template + drilling + skill

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June 16, 2006 14:57
Dropping C-1

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June 19, 2006 14:27
Mickey's famous disappearing act - P-7 foundation unbuilt

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June 23, 2006 12:56
C-3 takes the plunge

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June 30, 2006 13:15
See Mickey's new Copco

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June 30, 2006 14:25
Mickey, Ken, Sparky and team: Evaporating the C-4 base

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July 06, 2006 14:05
C-2 prep, Mickey and the Discovery Channel

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July 07, 2006 11:32
Final prep and sequencing of C-2

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July 07, 2006 12:58
Almost the last big blast - C-2, the Discovery Channel, Friends and Families

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July 08, 2006 12:13
Timmy cleaning up what Mickey left from yesterday: C-2 base

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July 12, 2006 14:55
P-10 says goodbye to Charleston

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July 14, 2006 14:50
C-1 base takes a dive

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July 26, 2006 7:26
ABS University, Prof. Rogers and the CHS Bomb Squad

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July 26, 2006 10:15
Final Examination for the CHS Bomb Squad

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August 22, 2006 11:29
Imploding the C-3 substructure - Mickey and Ken at their best

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October 30, 2006 15:56
Blasting Grace's foot prints

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January 11, 2007 16:43
Mickey, Ken and team loading T-1

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January 12, 2007 9:21
T-1 is no more: Mickey and Ken at their best

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January 13, 2007 13:11
Sarah, Jordan and Ashley star on the Discovery Channel

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January 14, 2007 16:10
Gone is T-2, the last of the Pearman support piers

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February 28, 2007 13:21
Preparing the T-2 base for Shelly

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February 28, 2007 15:59
Shelly pushes the button and gone is the T-2 foundation

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March 13, 2007 10:15
Bringing down the last Grace pier

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March 27, 2007 16:00
The last Graceful Blast from Mickey, Michael, Ken and the entire unbuilding team

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Attribution: C. Frank Starmer and Sparky Witte from http://oldcooperriverbridge.org