February 12, 2006: Weekend Survey
Our Testa friends have the weekend off - so there is time for me to
make a survey of where we are. Driving down Meeting street - work has
shifted from unbuilding to rebuilding the area where the old Grace and Pearman
ramps used to live.
Then to the Sea Breeze to check out the progress with Pearman pier, T-3. This
is the pier, with so much internal rebar (3 concentric cylinders, I believe),
that only tenacity of purpose will result in unbuilding this pier. Here is
the current state - the left column is gone. The right column is a tangle
of rebar with only a few feet remaining above the base. This is the
challenge of unbuilding. These guys don't know what is under the covers
until they lift them and take a look. I suspect the amount of internal
rebar in T3 and probably T2 was a surprise.
A closer view
Then over the Ravenel Bridge to the Coleman Recycle Center - neat stack of
bridge and ramp bones, ready for the next episode of reef transplantation.
A closer look - looking west
Looking east - figuratively, ready to extend the sidewalk that Joe
and Pio are building out to I-95. Each segment is half the Grace
roadway width and about 4 ft wide.
Moving along - here is a day view of the
Roadless Grace
that Richie, Jack, Roy and Rich made Thursday night.
and Grace's skeleton.
Then over to what used to be the Pearman on ramp.
Here, a transition from unbuilding to rebuilding is underway -
the new approach to
the new Mt. Pleasant Observation pier
and looking down the residual Pearman pier bases - the foundation for
the observation pier
I like this - can't forget what to do when its written on the target.
Now a preview of this week's action. The Dutch company,
Mammoet, is in town to install the
unlifting apparatus at the end of each Pearman cantilever section - just
before the pins that couple the cantilever sections to the main span.
Then on February 22 more or less, they will lower the Pearman main span
to a train of barges below. You can see some of the preparations:
installing the transverse beams that will support the hydraulic
lifting/unlifting units. As I understand it, they work sort of like
a hydraulic ratchet - lowering a fixed distance, then resetting and
repeating the ratchet-like lowering until the main span is resting
on the barges below. Probably the operator is sitting somewhere
in a comfortable chair with
a laptop to control the four hydraulic lifts.
The top of the Pearman at the east pin location (I think)
and the top of the Pearman at the west pin location (at the left
edge of the photo. (Drive by photos are not my speciality.)
