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)

January 17, 2006: Unbuilding the Grace cantilever truss

Watching the unbuilding acrobats beats the circus any day of the week. Here Sparky captured the continuation of building the Town Creek truss structure - piece by piece. Earlier we saw Ken Canty's step by step sequencing of the cutting process. Here is another example. An overview of the Port side of the Grace cantilever

Supported by the crane, our acrobats burn through the plate

Burning in context - on top, buring through the plate while the crane stabilizes the girder section

A gentle lift and separation (note lower right gap)

continued cutting through the top girder

more cutting, lifting and separation

final separation

and break away

rotating to lower the segment on the barge

The edge of the port-side cantilever, the Drum Island cantilever and lowering the section

down to the barge

then laying it over on its side

almost down and

down and sleeping

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