August 14, 2005: Pier extraction
With this addition of these photos,
our bridge story has moved to the next level. Sparky
Witte from Mt. Pleasant grew up here, has walked and bicycled the old bridges
more times than he can count and captured the next phase of removing the I-26
overpass. Here are his photos showing the extraction of one of the pairs
of piers and their cap. As you can see, the Testa guys are not only
surgeons, but also dentists - just imagine a tooth extraction with two
of the Stanley-LaBounty hydraulic units.
Positioning the grapple and shear to start the pier extraction (left)
and cutting the far pier (right)
With the shear, cutting the near pier (left) and a gentle pull from
the grapple (right)
Gentle lowering of the cap and upper pier segments
Continued lowering of the cap and pier segments until the tooth
extraction is complete