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)
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(Feb 20)
Unbuilding Stories
(Mar 13)
Video and Sounds
(Feb 28)
January 18, 2006: Mickey saves the day: Dropping T4

Today, Mickey and his ABS team saved the day and captured the dynamics of dropping the last Pearman pier (T-4) on Drum Island. Just like dropping a tree - notch it at the base, embed a bit of dynamite, attache a couple of pull ropes at the top, light the fuse, a gentle tug on the cables attached to the cap and - Click for video (wmv) (2.5 Mb) down it comes.

Just after the initial detonation - note the smoke at the base. Also the cables attached to the pier cap are connected to two excavators and tensioned by Leon and his colleague. See October 5 column blast for the pulling cable setup.

A little explosion and Leon's gentle pull on the pier-cap cables and over she goes

about half way

almost down

and poof: no more T-4

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