Unbuilding the Bridges

Looking west at the end of the Pearman approach from US 17, note the clean shave the Cashman-Testa folks give each segment. And of course, in the background is one of the Stanley-LaBounty mobile shears (what I refer to as bridge eaters).

Testa's "jaws" in action - removing the side barriers (left) and the symmetry of the Grace steel structure

August 16, 2005: Sparky does it again - unbuilding the Pearman

Two shearing machines biting through a girder

A graceful descent and planting a component of Charleston's Stonehenge Monument

resting is its final landing spot

Not much left of the Drum Island segment. Looking back at the Pearman: what-used-to-be-my-Sunday-morning-bicycle-route

August 17, 2005 A short progress report

Can you image the Pearman bridge without traffic? My Sunday morning bicycle rides were never like this - even at 7am!

Today's lesson - These guys exhibit the skills of a surgeon and dentist. Imagine, having to remove these bridges and extract the supporting structures with minimal disturbance. Yesterday, you saw from Sparky's photos that the Pearman girders end up in a vertical position.

From a distance it seem like we are building our own version of Stonehenge. Today I asked Pio Monsini how they did this and, as with other Testa skills, it turns out not to be an accident but rather a detailed procedure for dropping the girders. After the roadway between girders is removed, the structural integrity of the girder is broken near one pair of piers. The weakened girder then rotates down using the other cap as the point of rotation. Eventually, the structural integrity of the attached end is weakened sufficiently that the girder breaks loose and falls, almost vertically. Apparently this reduces the complexity of removing the girders as well as protecting the region around the girders

These are some of the members of our surgical team

and these are their surgical instruments

and a closer look at the shear (left) And Pio, Ken and one of the surgeons (I later discovered through his wife that this is Michael Hebb)

Here is a view of the Pearman caps - extending almost all the way to the steel superstructure.

To stabilize the segments east of the expansion joint, it is welded together thus providing additional stability to the remaining segments.

August 18, 2005:
Sparky's view of the Charleston Grace exit

August 19, 2005: Unbuilding the Pearman bridge

This is what remains of the beginning of Coleman Blvd.

This is one of the big mysteries for me. Testa takes the reinforced concrete chunks and somehow extracts that rebar from the concrete. As I understand it, this is in preparation for recycling - the rebar goes to a steel mill while the concrete goes somewhere? Anyone with insights into the process of separating these components.? (Aug 24, 2005 - Bill Callanan has provided a great description of the separation process).

The concrete is removed from the rebar using concrete pulverizers and
"Universal Processing" attachments. These tools pulverize the concrete and it
falls from the steel. Then the steel can be down sized using a shear
attachment on the excavator or down sized at the scrap yard. Either way the
down sizing of the steel prepares it for a smelter to be melted down.
By removing the concrete from the steel it can be recycled rather than
disposed of at a land fill. The concrete can be recycled as well once the
steel has been reused.

Here you can see the rebar (and rather long pieces) that has been separated from the concrete

Looking west at the Pearman worksite - an array of dental tools for penetrating the roadway and removing the concrete - all in preparation to remove the supporting steel beam structure.

The dental jackhammers used for punching through the road segements between the I-beams - the first step in cleaning I-beams. To me, to wipe the tops of the I-beams of the concrete roadbed with their instruments requires a skill that is difficult to imagine.

Our surgeons at work - cleaning the I-beams that from the base of a span

A closer viewe of the cleaned internal I-beam structure.

looking east at the Pearman superstructure. The superstructure is composed of 3 components: 1 cantilevered from each supporting concrete pier and then a central unit that is pinned to the cantilevered components. For removal, the points of pinning will be disrupted so that the central section can crop into the ship channel. Cranes will be used to life the dropped segment and place it on waiting barges for a final trip to somewhere.

August 19, 2005: Grace Structure

A view of the main Grace span (March 6, 2005). The peaked superstructure above each concrete support pier acts as a cantilever. The central pinned structure has a lower peak.

The Grace spans consist of 3 major components: a center span where the pinned component is on the lower left and lower right.

and a pier supporting a cantilevered component (left) that is attached by a vertial element (Ken told me the name and I forgot) (right)

Removal of the Grace bridge will consist of dropping the central component into the Cooper River, leaving the cantilevered components for later removal.

August 20 2005: Marking the next work sites

It all starts at the boat dock - under the Grace and Pearman approaches

The Testa guys are building a sort of Charleston Stonehenge

Reflections of our Charleston Stonehenge

When the water is calm and reflections are only slightly disturbed - well, as the Visa add says: "priceless"

Sparky has captured more of the flavor of our Stonehenge

Each supporting column has a number. Here Ken and Paul are painting numbers on each supporting column - mostly so that folks like me won't disturb the wrong one

PBC continues a bit of finish work - here, increasing the size of the rock island surrounding the east pylon

And cargo ships continue to pass along the shipping channel

A last look at Testa's dental equipment used for extracting the Pearman bridge segments.

Sparky captured a pleasant ending of this day - new crossing old

and sunset over the Cooper River.

August 20, 2005: Moving the crane into position

Positioning the big crane for removal of some of the Pearman steel. You can get an impression of size when compared with the Ravenel towers.

A view from afar

The real thing

August 22, 2005: Sparky catches more of the Pearman grider extraction.
Continuing to remove girders up to the superstructure

Here you can see the edge girder on the far side resting on the two sets of caps.

After the dust mostly settles you can see the girder resting with the left end between the legs of the piers.

And now its time for a small retreat, preparing to remove the next section

August 23, 2005:
Dropping the last group of Pearman girders (Thanks to Sparky who is at it again).

Here is the last section of roadway before the superstructure over Town Creek

After dropping the edge girders - one from each side

Two more left

August 27, 2005:
Looking west, only the Charleston Stonehenge and the Town Creek superstructure remain.

I am still amazed at how the Testa surgeons drop the griders vertically.

August 31, 2005:
Preparation for dismantling the Grace superstructure

A view of the Grace off-ramp and Pearman on-ramp from Hanover St.

Looking back: the Pearman on-ramp on the left and Pearman off-ramp on the right. The Testa guys are moving rapidly toward Hanover St.

The pink lines mark the safety zone and and tie-off reminders

At the base of the Pearman superstructure, plates have been welded across the expansion joints to stabilize any lateral motion

At the east end of the bridge, Scott Stone's guys are building a work platform with a safety rail

Another look at building the work platform

And a couple of last looks at the Ravenel Bridge

September 2, 2005:
From the Ravenel Bicycle lane

The Grace and Pearman above the Sea Breeze Marina - tight quarters

The Grace and Pearman activity - starting to work on the trusses

A pleasant view of the Grace, Pearman and Ravenel

The Pearman truss work - building a platform

Two views of the platform work

The Pearman and Grace Bridges

A closer look at the platform

September 3 2005:
Pearman Superstructure Preparation

The end of the Pearman over Drum Island - building a work platform for securing the end of the Pearman superstructure

A closer view of the work

On the left you can see a pair of vertical channels with two horizontal angle iron brackets. On the right, the guys are preparing to add the two horizontal angle iron brackets

Preparing to weld (with your curious eyes, you can see the welding rod in his right hand)

About 30 min later - last weld on the top bracket

Cleaning the weld

And more views of the Charleston Stonehenge

September 11, 2005: 4pm
Removal of the Pearman Roadway and supporting girders

And on my way to the worksite - I find Michael (on the left - see the non-reflective sunglasses) and a colleague (right) cutting a bracket.

Here is part of our team: Nugget, Michael, Pio, Jim and Richie. The main idea is that this team removes the concrete roadway - 7 feet at a time and then the supporting girders - 2 at a time.

Basically, Rich (of Concrete Cutting and Breaking, Inc.) cuts across the roadway from edge barrier to edge barrier. Note the harness and restraining cable he is wearing.

Here Rich is cutting toward the opposite edge.

After cutting, a grapple is used to rotate the 7 foot segment up and move them off the site. This is better characterized in the night photos below. Here are stacks of 7 foot segments that have been moved from the Pearman to the base of the approach. Here they are loaded on trucks and removed.

From below, it is easier to see what is happening. Here the roadway and the supporting longitudinal girders have been removed from the far part of the bridge. The cross members and edge girders remain in place.

Two barges are tied down to catch any small debris from the cutting operation above

Here you can see the beginning of rotating the left segment up

and a bit more rotation

and a bit more rotation

until all that remains are the supporting girders which will be cut and removed

The right concrete panel will then be removed and then another seven foot segment until the cross beam is reached. Then the supporting girders will be cut and removed.

September 11, 2005: 9pm
Night work removing road panels and girders

The first surprise was that only one tower of the Ravenel Bridge was lit.

But in the meantime, the night crew was continuing to cut the roadway into 7 foot segments, remove them, cut the cross-pieces between the supporting girders and pull pairs of girders from the supporting structure. Here is the concrete saw - I suppose its a diamond tip blade.

Then the grapple moves in and lifts a panel (7 ft x 1/2 the road width)

higher

higher

higher

higher

higher

higher until it falls over

Then the panel is pulled away from the work site

and removed by a big-time fork lift

Then more cutting

and more cutting - and at night - with the sparks flying, its better than the forth of July!

Its interesting with long exposures to see "shadow man"

and more shadow man

Then the grapple moves in again and rotates the panel up

and up

and up

and then picks the panel up as if picking up a pencil from the floor. These guys really do display incredible surgical skills!

Continuing to pick up the panel

and rotate it 180 degrees and stack them for the fork lift

Then cutting the girders continues - complete with 4th of July sparklers

I suppose its obvious that this really fascinates me!

Now to start the dental process - extracting a pair of girders. First a pair of cables is attached to the grapple

and the other end to the girders

Another view of attaching the cables to the girders.

and then the grapple stabilizes the girders while the final cutting continues (I think Rick Beauchamp is driving the 345 here and you can see his head inside the cab.

A few more adjustments

and then the big pull - just like a simple tooth extraction - except this tooth weighs several tons

Pulling up a little

Then lifting and pulling

and pulling and lifting a bit more

then pulling back a bit more

and then pulling the pair of girders out of the work site for removal sometime later (tomorrow?)

A bit more of pulling the girders

And finally, the extraction and clean-up is complete. Now There is a gap where the tooth was and its time to cut and remove the next pair of girders

I am quite impressed with the safety of these procedures. In many photos, you can see the tie-down cables and these guys are like high wire artists with torches.

September 12, 2005:
A buffet of Pearman roadway and girder unbuilding

Here is the boundary between the roadway removal and open spans - as seen from the Grace Bridge

Another view of the boundary

And there is always clean-up going on - Pio is a hands-on supervisor

September 19, 2005:
Removing the Cooper River segment of the Pearman roadway

Work continues on the Pearman - working over the Cooper River. Here is the transition from the Drum Island supports to the Cooper River supports.

And a view of the Ravenel Bridge and the main span approach of the Cooper River segment of the Pearman Bridge

Looking back at the super structure pin region

And Testa working away at removing the roadway over the Cooper River

I thought it would be interesting to get another look at the Pearman skeleton from below

and surprise - I caught Michael Hebb working away at lunch

September 20, 2005:
Tooth Extraction and Root Canal jobs on the Pearman roadway.

I continue to be impressed with the skill and art of these Testa surgeons and dentists. Here is the story of tooth extraction and a root canal procedure. It starts by a walk from the Mt. Pleasant side of the Pearman Bridge.

The basic procedure is to cut the concrete roadway into 7 foot strips, remove them and then remove the underlying girders. Here is a segment of roadway being placed on the forklift (driven by Jim) by the 345 grapple, Michael (whose wife Tina continues to encourage me with these stories).

Here Michael's 345 (right) releases the concrete segment onto Jim's mega-forklift (left) and off Jim goes to the recycling center at the base of the bridge (Coleman Blvd).

Jim gets a lot of practice driving backwards

Here is Richie - one of the skilled surgeons, who, with a torch, can cut anything

and Nugget (Mike) who has yet to tell me his story

The extraction process starts with Mike's jack - which hammers a channel along the length of the expansion joint

and Richie looking on - To see this live, click here (20 Mb quicktime video)

After the channel is prepared, Richie suits up for a bit of cutting while Jim enjoys the comfort of his forklift

Torch (unlit) in hand, Richie walks out on the right girder to cut elements that bond it to the bridge structure

while Nugget is cutting away on the left side

All the time - Pio is watching and in communication with the home office

Richie cutting a crossbeam

Nugget is making the first cut to sever a crossbeam

and here, Nugget is making the 2nd cut to sever the brace between the two girders

while Richie is making a July 4th display with his cutting

Next, Nugget cuts the expansion joint and literally extracts a tooth from the expansion element. Another tooth is extracted and this divides the roadway girder structure into three components.

Meanwhile, Michael and Jim are just chillin' a bit while the cutting continues.

And as you can see, Pio is holding one of the teeth - root and all

and a rare photo of Michael, Frank and Pio. Jim takes better photos than I do

Here are the middle and right girder segments - what we refer to as the root canal

and to add to the entertainiment two F-somethings have their landing gear down - I suppose to land somewhere

Michael with his grapple, reaches under the expansion joint and pulls it up

Oops - it did not want to cooperate - so just as in the dental chair - a bit of investigation is in order.

Richie goes back down to cut a remaining bolt - that I suppose was a surprise

Richie watches as Michael takes another pull - and

up comes the middle pair of girders

now Michael pulls the girders backwards and onto the roadway

and gently places it on the road. For a video of the extraction process click here (30 Mb quicktime video)

This is now what the girder structure looks like with one root canal gone

Nugget uncouples a shackle tied to one set of cables from the girder pair while Michael is driving the grappel and Jim is driving the mega-forklife

here Nugget is removes the other shackle that uncouples the other cable

and Jim drags it down to the Mt. Pleasant reprocessing plant. Lots of practice with backwards driving

a bit more backing up

and a nice view of the Ravenel Bridge

and deposits it in the recycling and reprocessing plant. Note the stacks of 7 foot roadway segments. Here concrete is separated from rebar, girders are cut and a lot of other stuff that minimizes that waste.

September 29, 2005: Test blast on Drum Island
Sparky and Mickey Rogers came to the rescue while I was at NIH

Here is the before image. Look carefully at the support with the vertical column of holes - that contains the explosive charge

Better shown here

and from a different vantage point (before)

The blast (from Mickey who works for Advanced Blasting Services). Note that the blast started at the bottom of the columns and was timed to work its way up the column. Click for a video (Windows Media Video format) or Click for a video (1 Mb mpg)

and from Sparky

The smoke

more smoke

more smoke

and as the smoke settles -

and now - just another cloud

After the blast - just pieces

Another view - and my assessment is that the blasting guys represent another surgical specialty within the Cashman/Testa team.

And of course - cleanup at the bottom

and cleanup at the top

September 30, 2005: Mt. Pleasant side of the Pearman work site

It was a foggy and dark morning - and a quiet that walks with the early morning. But the guys were at it - Pio, Nugget, Mike, Jim - working on the last segment of the Pearman roadway (up to the end of the superstructure)

Here is the recyling area - lost of sections of edge barriers for rebar recovery

and Jack and his colleage (another short term memory problem of mine). Here - note the use of the bridge roadway segment to make a work surface for rebar recovery

Here is an interesting view of the pearman site - with Jim's headlight in the background as he brings a road segment down to the recycle area

And a better view of Jim and his mega-forklift

Here is Michael - chillin' a bit while the roadway is cut

Here is the remaining roadway to be removed today

and Nugget has just finished his cutting

Tools ready and waiting

Richie has finished some of the cleanup and more chillin' together with Mike. Note that at 7am, Michael is not wearing sun glasses.

Meanwhile, Jim is fetching and toting road segments to the recycle area - and stacking them in nice neat stacks. Later these will be used to make a temporary roadway for the CATs as they work their way around the bases of the Grace and Pearman bridges. More recycling - someone on the team is a chess master and thinking 14 moves ahead!

And Jack got the same message - no sun glasses this morning

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

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