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)
Grace Bridge Stories
(Apr 3)
Imposions: Prep and boom
(Mar 27)
Unbuilding Bridge Blog
(July 23 2006)
Unbuilding Challenges
(Mar 13)
Learning Links
(Feb 20)
Unbuilding Stories
(Mar 13)
Video and Sounds
(Feb 28)

December 20, 2006: Nearing the end of Grace

Manny - the man of the day

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The worksite - Chris and Manny holding the structure together while our ironworker acrobats do their thing

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Nugget cutting the roadway frame from the temporary support

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and Carlos cutting on the near side

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Nugget cutting on the far side

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while at the end resting on the Grace pier, Stan and Robbie do the cutting

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Carlos continues his surgical cutting

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and parallel cutting on the pier end

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Robbie cutting

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and Stan cutting

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This gives a good perspective on Chris stabilizing the pier section while Manny is coupled to the entire roadway frame

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A good view of Chris' stablization while Robbie (near side) and Stan (far side) cut

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Stan burning through the roadway frame

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Inspecting the cut

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Final cut on the far side

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and its free

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Now Chris is running the elevator on the pier side

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and Chris, the elevator operator

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A final cut on the near side

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a closer view of the final cut

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Lewis holding one of the tag lines

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and Manny starts the Playtex procedure

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While the left side is free, something is still connected on the right side

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Note the angle of the roadway frame - a small midcourse cut is required

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so Carlos makes some more cuts

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and checks the other side

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Carlos walking back to the elevator

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Now both sides are free and Manny can continue the Playtex procedure

Slowly and gently

up a bit

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with a bit of spin

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and lift

and a little more rotation - almost clear of the temp support

Clear of the support and now lowering the roadway frame

down

down

down

Now showing at a theater near you - Adventure of the Grace roadway frame

and touchdown

The end of the day - Good night and good luck

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

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