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 21, 2006: Manny and the guys finish Grace

The worksite: 10:47 from Sparky's window

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and from the side - Chris stabilizing the road frame and Manny running the elevator

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Manny's elevator and a man basket - getting folk in place

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Starting to cut through the base to separate the roadway frame

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Nugget and Stan

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A better view of the support cables to Chris' 7550 and Manny's elevator

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with Carlos

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The mobility of the 7550 really makes a difference as seen here

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A last minute check by Carlos to make sure the cuts are complete

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Then Chris starts the platex procedure: left and separate (left side)

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and right site

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and on the way

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and rotate the roadway frame

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and on the way down

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while Nugget and Stan lower themselves

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From below

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under Carlos' watchful eyes

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and Chris' watchful eyes

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down

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with Lewis helping with the rotation

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Lewis and his blue shirts!

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a gentle push

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and down

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Lewis removing the lift cables

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and a smile from Chris

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Now, part 2 for Chris - lowering the left Grace pier

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and now its Manny's turn. as the last section is lowered under his watchful eyes

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The beginning

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Freeing the base

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Rotating

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and on the way down

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Near the end

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and the end of the day

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and a happy team

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More later

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

C. Frank Starmer

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