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)

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

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