December 15, 2006 Unbuilding at the port
Joe is unbuilding the box girders while
Here is Chris Wakeman and fellow acrobats are taking on the Grace
superstructure
The remaining Grace truss and temporary support. Manny is holding it
all together
Nice view of the Grace skeleton, Manny's crane and a lonely Pearman pier
To the left - you see the support cables to Manny's crane and an
acrobat in disguise, cutting one of the interior cross members
A closer view
and Carlos on the left, making a parallel cut. You can always tell
Carlos because he wears a white hard hat (but Paul does also).
4th of July on Dec 15th
About a year ago, Nugget was demonstrating the 6 major ironworker
acrobat position. Here is Carlos in position 4
cutting away
This looks like Nugget in position 0
and Stan in the getting ready position
With both sides cut - Manny takes over, slowly lifting
Did you ever think about Manny's job. He sits in the cab, with baseball
cap in position, looking up and using fly by wire - lifts these sections
while nagivating structural obstacles.
Carlos and Stan and Nugget maintain
the communication - but, watching Manny work is really something!
Now clear of all the obstacles
and on its way down
down
down
and gently laying it down
slowly
Down and now decoupling and the next stage of unbuilding. Paul
(you can tell by his white hat and his white shirt) is pleased
Our ground team
removing the cables
and Manny moves his rig back to the top
where the support cables are attached
by our acrobats
step 2
step 3
and a Sparky art photo looking up the boom
Ready for taking up the slack
and back to cutting
A view of cutting on both sides
Carlos starting his cut
and not sure who this is
A good view of the cross piece stabilized by Manny
Carlos making the final cut
Then
up
up
and away
Manny navigating again and then lifting the section
nd slowly rotating over the top
up
and to the left
slowly
slowly
slowly
to the left
all clear and now down
down
down
and down to the ground
The stress on various Grace members is showing. Here the base is cut
in order to reduce the stress on that section - enabling our acrobats
to remove a front cross-member without movement from the back section
being transferred to the front.
The other side
and an overview
Another Sparky art photo - simply wow!
where Michael and his buddies are working on the excavators
and a hydraulic hammer