The Testa-Cashman guys were at it all night - and when I arrived about 6am
the removal of the floor girders on the piers east of the I26 overpass
was almost
complete. Here is the story of overpass girder removal:
lifting compared with
the Friday night removal by gentle lowering of the girders.
The procedure consisted of attaching cables to each girder, cutting the bolts
that coupled the girder to the caps, lifting the girder, rotating it and then
lowering it. I have tried to capture most of the steps in the procedure.
I shall fill in the details a bit later
Continuation of removing the girders on the east side of the overpass
After all the east girder were removed - here is the I-26 overpass.
First - clean up the debris from removing the roadway between the overpass
girders
Erecting the crane that will be used to life the girders
Moving the lifting cables into position between the edge girder and the
one next to it
Lowering the cables between the girders
Looping the cables around the outside girder
Moving the loops into position
Initial lifting of the girder
the lifting the entire girder
rotating the girder and lowering it to the ground
Decoupling the cable loops
Rotating the lift cables back to the next girder
Positioning the left cables
Cutting the attachment between the girder and the pier cap
An initial lift from below
Then lift - slowly slowly
Rotate and lower
Note the protective blankets placed over the I-26 edge barriers
to the final resting place
Decouple the cable loops
And so it start again with lowering the cables between the next
pair of girders
Making the loops
Raising the loops and moving them into the lift configuration
and so the process starts again
