August 10, 2006: Cooper River Update - Drilling C-3
Sparky has been working on the book. I've been watching unbuilding
in Singapore - without Mickey's assistance. What a difference 12 time
zones make.
More drilling on the Pearman piers next to the Sea Breeze
A closer view
and look at Cousin Arthur
The worksite with the 995 in the sleeping position
Looking along the Ravenel Bridge ramp
Paul Achorn on the left and Sonny on the right
Pulling stuff from the river mud
Hmmm - Manny has been fishing here
Hmmm - is this a Riverdog in disguise
Friendly waves from the fishing team
And some burning to cut the base of a Grace support (I think)
Manny's fishing rig
The residual superstructure between the Seabreeze and the Port
From the other side
Meanwhile here is Mickey's new Copco
And the old Copco to the right
Remember back in
June when I spent the day with Ken and the O'Dell brothers -
drilling P-12. This has a familiar ring to it and looks like another
drilling template wrapped around P-something
Sonny lighting the cutting torch
and cutting a hole for the drilling sleeve
And burned through
and Sonny from the other side
and yet another angle. Note the shock tubes leading down to the underwater
explosives - dropped down the shaft drilled by the Copco.
Here is the drilling sleeve being coupled to another sleeve
Here is P-10 (I think) ready for Mickey
And Prof. Rogers and his team of learners coupling two drilling sleeves
One turn at a time
and another
and another
Looking down the drilling sleeve
Sonny burning the next drilling guide hole in the template
The idea is that first Mickey slides the drilling sleeve through the
hold in the collar wrapped around the pier base. The drilling sleeve
has a group of carbide cutting tips on the end and the old Copco drills
down about 6 inches into the concrete pier foundation. With the drilling
sleeve stabilized at the bottom (underwater and within the submerged
pier apron), a smaller bit is used to drill down 30 - 40' where the charges
will be placed.
A view from above
and a wider view
Here the new Copco is
Drilling the charge hole with a bit and shaft within the external drilling
sleeve
Here the new Copco is drilling the hole for charges
This is a good view of drilling through the collar guide hole. The
red cups cover the tops of holes drilled on the top surface of the
pier - to minimize rain water from filling the holes
Here is the new Copco with the drill shaft extracted from the sleeve
Starting another hole. Here James (?) is holding the drill bit
and screwing it into the drilling shaft
Tightening it
and ready for drilling
Centering it over the drilling shaft
And lowering it into the shaft
The shaft at the base of the drilling tower
and the top of the shaft drive assembly
Extending the drive shaft - here lowering the primary drive onto the
extension below
and into the coupling
Meanwhile the elder Copco is drilling with the large sleeve
and here the new Copco is simply drilling away
with a bit of backflow water coming out the top of the drilling sleeve
and settling down a bit
Ken in discussion
This looks like a back-flow deflector - a bit of on the spot engineering
and ready to go
and Ken checking it out
A good view of the new copco, the template collar and a couple of
drilling sleeves (far left and far right)
And the water is getting a bit choppy
and choppy
Picking up the next drilling sleeve
up
and up
and up
And down
aligning with the template hole
down
down
down
guiding
and down
success - aligned with the sleeve
Now secondary alignment below
aligning
and Ken checking the vertical alignment
and perpendicular alignment
A slightly puzzled Ken
meanwhile the elder Copco is drilling with the big sleeve - with
a bit of backflow
and backflow
Tieing the sleeve
and lifting
Passing C-2 - already drilled
and Kim
and Cousin Arthur
The last of the super structures
and rain
The Sea Breeze Bay
The Sea Breeze (Mickey's new office) and the remaining Grace and Pearman
superstructures
As seen from the East Bay Bicycle Park
From Mt. Pleasant
Placing the floor girders for the Mt. Pleasant Observation Pier
Progress - with little Grace foot prints to the right
The observation pier
What a view from Mt. Pleasant. When is Mayor Riley going to build the
jogger's and bicycler's park on the Charleston Side