February 4, 2006: Pio, Michael, Sonny and Steve
600 feet of Grace and counting down
I had not checked up on Pio since early in the week when they had
just passed the truss. At about 200 ft/day (100' by day, 100' by night) -
the end of Grace is near. So here is Pio in his front end loader
and Sonny and Steve
and Pio
However, a few hours earlier, Sparky caught the real action. Here
is Sonny (like Nugget and Speedy, no one knows their real names)
trimming a piece of guard rail
Meanwhile Brutus, the little Testa that could,
is involved in a little
cleanup and trim work on one of the Pearman pier bases. Look at Bob
McCabe in his captain's chair. Its clear who is directing traffic here.
While Michael prepares to bit into a concrete segment
and lift it
and rotates into the unloading position
and places it on the ramp surface
Then Sonny pushes it down the ramp in his little cub
While Steve mounts his trusty 120-HP V-6 gas powered flat saw
and starts cutting the next grid of roadway segments
(as seen from above)
toward the shoulder
and a small daytime July 4 fireworks
while Sonny is loading some guard rail segments
actually picks them up
and places them in the cub's mouth
next
and moves them down to the Coleman Recycle Center
When I got there, the clouds had all said goodbye and
Michael was hammering away at the expansion joint
Breaking the concrete so it can be cut more easily
Michael in his hammer
and Michael in his Testa orange (I dream of wearing one of these) shirts
If you ever drove the Grace bridge - you knew that two lanes was a tight
squeeze - but this tight? - Requires Pio in his new job
as a traffic policeman.
Mike doing the driving after moving the side view mirrors
Here is what remains of Grace's skeleton
Pio is counting the feet and has marked
the distance every 100 ft - here 600 ft to go.
Now that Mike is done, Steve, concrete cutter and his concrete dust
beard are going back to cutting more roadway
and Steve cutting