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.

December 19, 2006: Part two of the Grace Superstructure

Part 2 - The worksite

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Nugget on this way up

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Carlos - always looking out for everyone

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While Lewis positions himself to start unbuilding the 1st section

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Lewis - foolin' around with the shackles

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and removing the lift cables from the first section

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You can always tell its Lewis - blue is his favorite color. (Check out Lewis on March 18 and and 3 months later, June 7 when Ken and Mickey were using the collar to guide the substructure drilling)

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A small smile from Carlos

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A very interesting photo - Lewis in position 3, the prone position, while Carlos is scoring the position - in this case, Lewis gets and 8 out of 10

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Lewis decoupling another shackle

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as seen from below - both worksites

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From a different angle

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Nugget in position 1, the riding position

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Just like a medical operating theater - everything in its place

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With Paul carefully watching

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Chris in his 7550

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supporting the last part of the Grace superstructure

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Manny

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and Lewis

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Another view of the worksite

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and Robbie with a smile while Nugget is very happy about something

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Manny moves the lift cables into position. You can see the holes in the tops of the girders for placing the lift cables

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Nuggest grabs one

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while Carlos cuts a hole

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Moving the lift cables into position while Chris stabilizes the total structure

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Randi from SCDOT, definite improvement over Lewis's blue shirt

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and Rick Larsen - demonstrating an alternate stabilization procedure

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Manny's cables are in the 2-b-connected position - Carlos on the far side with Robbie and Nugget on the near side

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as Carlos pulls one into position

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You can see Nugget working on this side with the cable end passing through the hole in the girder

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Randi practicing for the next episode of Project Runway

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Carlos and Robbie with a new, undocumented tandem position - #13

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and the cutting starts

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A good view of Manny's support cables, cutting in the middle and Chris' stabilizing position

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More cutting

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Carlos cutting while Robbie supervises

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While Nugget is cutting on the other side (hidden)

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and end view of the worksite

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and Nugget just being Nugget

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Robbie checking the cables

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Close quarters cutting by Carlos

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more cutting

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and also on the other side

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A better view of Nugget making his cut

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And a good view of the stabilization provided by Chris and Manny

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A variation of the tandem position - Robbie in the sitting supervisor position while Carlos cuts

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and making good progress

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Carlos almost completing his top cut

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A quick inspection - and ready for Manny

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who starts his playtex procedure: lift and separate

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Free and clear

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Manny rotates

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and down it comes

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down

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with Paul directing traffic

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Paul and Lewis positioning the section

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Its down

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and Manny is pleased

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Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

C. Frank Starmer

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