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
May 11, 2006:
Sparky tours the worksites

Not only has it been raining in Singapore, it seems like the Singapore weather has infected Charleston. Sparky got out today to check on the progress around the Cooper River and then the Navy yard.

The Cooper River worksites (3 sets of action - unbuilding the Pearman cantilever, DD preparing the west Grace cantilever and cleanup around the east Grace on-ramp foundations. Here is a wide view of the worksites.

and a closer view of the Pearman and Grace action

Cleaning up a foundation pier

And at the Navy yard - unloading the Cooper River harvest and then chewing on it a bit.

Tieing up - with Pat back with the Captain Gary from Boston

Here is the harvest on the barge

and Steve doing his usual Dale Earnhardt thing. It is getting lonely at the Navy yard, Richie returned to Boston with Kathy on Tuesday (or maybe Wednesday - I'm still having problems with the international date line, Singapore days and Charleston days).

And here are the chuncks that Steve made from the Grace and Pearman harvests

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C. Frank Starmer

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