Unbuilding the Grace and Pearman Bridges

For Sparky and myself, curiosity drives passion which in turn fuels our life's engine. Our passion was capturing the story of both unbuilding the Grace (1929 - 2007) and Pearman (1966 - 2007) Bridges and discovering the unbuilders. It takes a lot of passion to track a project from July 2005 until April 2007 - rain, shine, hurricanes or moving to Singapore. We discovered the joy of discovery learning. Ken Canty opened the front door for us - then Steve Testa, Ponch Billingsley and Mickey Rogers opened many side doors. Below are the highlights of what we discovered, who we met and what we learned.

And a reminder from T.S. Eliot (East Coker from the Four Quartets)

Home is where one starts from. As we grow older
The world becomes stranger, the pattern more complicated
Of dead and living. Not the intense moment
Isolated, with no before and after,
But a lifetime burning in every moment
And not the lifetime of one man only
But of old stones that cannot be deciphered.

Home Meeting St East Bay Drum Island Mt. PLeasant Pearman Stories Grace Stories Implosions Enginnering Insights Stories of unbuilders Learning Links Bridge Video Bridge Blog Unbuilding Archive All Unbuilding Segments Building the Ravenel Bridge Photo Essays About me

December 6, 2006: Manny and iron worker acrobatics

Sparky got to the worksite just in time to watch the separation and lowering of one of the final spans

Watch the final cut (1.7 MB mpg)
Watch Manny lower the section (1.3 MB mpg)

The worksite - note the left box girder (to be removed) and the gap on the right where a box girder used to live.

another view of the worksite showing Manny's crane and the to-be-removed section between the concrete pier and the temporary supports

The right rail - recently removed

Our team of iron worker acrobats: Carlos, Stan, Robbie?e and Nugget

and their elevator

Up up and away

In the middle - preparing to wrap the box beam with cables

Getting into position

Carlos signaling Manny

Into position

Making a hole for wrapping the cables

Manny moving the cables into position

Waiting

Cables in position for attaching around the box girder

Stan (far left) and Robbie preparing one end for attaching

more getting ready

Dropping one end through the hole and wrapping the box girder

Preparing the other cable

Carlos signaling Manny - take up the slack

While someone starts cutting the near end of the box girder

and Manny stabilizes the girder

Robbie starting to burn through the far end with Stan sort of chillin'

and continuing to cut through the near end

while Lewis is cutting the left box girder into smaller sections

A closer view of Carlos cutting the near end

Robbie cutting at the far end

Completed cut

and Robbie continuing to cut through the other end

while Carlos enjoys the view

Robbie cutting through the hand rail

and continuing to cut through the box girder

Separation and lift-off

Manny slowly lifts the segment

Wow - what a view - clouds, Manny in action and the separated girder

Then lowering it

down

down

down

Looking up the support (Sparky is great with picking interesting perspectives

Paul Achorn and Carlos in the elevator - with the drilled pier behind them

Nugget displaying his skill at divide and conquor

Cutting the middle rail

and Nugget cutting the top rail

Manny's cap

Manny and Chris Vocci - what a pair

Sunset

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

C. Frank Starmer