Changing the face of Charleston : The unbuilding of the Grace and Pearman Bridges
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Unbuilding Highlights
(Apr 10)
Meeting St. Stories
(Jul 10 2006)
East Bay Stories
(Oct 10 2006)
Drum Island Stories
(Feb 17)
Pearman Bridge Stories
(Apr 3)
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(Apr 3)
Imposions: Prep and boom
(Mar 27)
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(July 23 2006)
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(Mar 13)
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(Feb 28)

December 15, 2006 (afternoon):Unbuilding the last of the Grace truss

I think it is afternoon - about 14:44 - my Singapore time, East coast time and Sparky camera times are off by 12 hours or so - but we'll straighten this out. Here it is clear that Manny and the ironworkers are unbuilding a 2nd section of the Grace superstructure - so I'm guessing this is afternoon. Afterall, Sparky has to have lunch some time. So here is Manny

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and an overview of progress to date (but which date, I'm uncertain). The triangle section is gone (on the right) which I think was done Friday morning

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and Carlos, chillin a bit

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and a big smile from Stan

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and a small smile from Nugget with fuzz continuing to grow from his chin

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Setting up the cables to stablize the next section

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and of course, a Sparky art photo

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and this one is even better. Gives a good idea of the boom length

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Nugget starts cutting to attach one set of cables

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while Carlos is fiddling around with the other cable

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For me, this is the surgical skill displayed by Carlos, Manny, Nugget and Stan - placing the cables so that the to-be-removed segment is pretty well balanced. Once on the Pearman on ramp, Nugget and Stan actually used a measuring tape to position the lift bar over one of the concrete girders. Here, there is no lift bar - so, really remarkable skill required to correctly place the lift cables.

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More work on cable placement

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Carlos wrapping the cable through a hole at the top

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and securing it- and I'm wrong - there is a lift bar!

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being observed from the Sea Breeze

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Not sure what is happening here

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Cutting the base of the vertical truss

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and its free

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and the other side is free (Stan's work?)

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Now Nugget (closer with the red hard hat) and Carlos (far with the white hard hat) are cutting the cross member

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A good view of the cut cross bracing

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Nugget cutting

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and Carlos cutting

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A good view of Carlos

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and Nugget cutting

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while Joe is doing a divide and conquor cut on the ground sections

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Nugget's section appears free

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and Manny takes over

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A good view ov both free sections

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Then Manny starts his "lift and separate" protocol. Click to watch Manny does it again (3 MB mpg)

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up and away

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as he rotates it east

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and slowly lowers it

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now in front of the Grace pier

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Almost down

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then some more rotation

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and slowly lowering it

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with a small twist (rotation)

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and gently lays it down

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to its temporary resting place (Joe's unbuilding corner)

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Attribution: C. Frank Starmer and Sparky Witte from http://oldcooperriverbridge.org