November 14, 2005:
Picking the East Bay section of the Grace
Something new - removing an entire section of the Grace Bridge over
East Bay. Here is the setup - Paul's team will cut the superstructure
at the supports and then Chris and his trusty Grove 7550 will
lift a section and lower it to the roadway.
Attaching cables that connect the to-be-removed-section to Chris's 7550
Cutting through the right side cross members.
Here is another view of the guys in their man basket and the X cross
members
making another July 4th-like display
At the same time, another pair is cutting through the left side edge
girder - starting at the top and working their way down.
Here you can see the diagonal path they have cut
A view of their man basket up inside the superstructure.
To the right - you can see that the edge girder to the right has been completely
separated from the segment to the left.
Then they started working on the opposite side (north side)
More cutting on the north side
Here you can see their platform behind the north edge girder
Here you can clearly see the diagonal cut on the southern edge girder
They lower themselves (see the arm of the man basket)
Then Chris lifts the left side
The right side fractures at the points of the preliminary cuts
Then, Grace is free
is rotated and on her way down
resting on the East Bay roadway
looking at the end of the bridge segment
and for the first time in about 70 years,
the north lanes of East Bay are free of Grace