Changing the face of Charleston : The unbuilding of the Grace and Pearman Bridges
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The story of building the Ravenel Bridge
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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 21, 2006: T-4 cleanup

Last Wednesday, Mickey's ABS team felled T-4, the last Pearman cantilever support. Today, the weather was perfect for a bicycle ride so these photos are from the Ravenel bicycle path. As you can see - there is almost nothing left of T-4. In the background are the remaining cantilever segments of the Grace (Port and Drum Island segments) and the Pearman Port segment.

(Jan 27, 2006: Corey Rubchinuk sent me email way back in December about his father, Leon, a member of the Testa team. Since then, I have looked all over for Leon, but he was always at a place that was difficult for me to get to. But the Testa family is a small group and Ponce came by yesterday, after Brett's blast of the T-4 foundation, and I asked where Leon might be. He pointed across Town Creek at am excavator and said "there is Leon". I remembered that I saw someone last Saturday (Jan 21) cleaning up around T-4 and asked Ponch about it. Yes, he said - Leon was working last Saturday. So I have found Leon - but have not yet associated a face with the name. So I'm going to continue to search for him - and give his son, Corey, a surprise photo).

A lonely excavator (operated by Leon - as described above) doing the cleanup.

A closer view of Leon and the T-4 root

In the background several cranes are being positions to continue disassembly of the Grace cantilever sections

This is simply a wider shot of the same worksite - with the Ravenel approaches in the distance

Later when I returned, our lone cleaner-upper was using his hammer to break down the T-4 foundation (Ponce, see above - said that someone was working with Leon - so next, I'll find out how this is)

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