January 26, 2006:
Blasting the base of T-4, Iron worker
acrobats and gone is the Grace ramp
Today was a 3 event day - Evaporating the Grace ramp at America
St., more ironworker acrobatics and Brett loads and blasts the
base of T-4.
The worksite around T-4
A closer view. The black regions are rubber tire blankets laying over
the base of T-4
Here comes Sharon and Phillip - to get the remote receiver
Today was Brett's day. For the past year of so, he has worked from the
bottom of the ladder and moved his way up in his father's organization.
Mickey challenged Brett with
today's challenge - loading and sequencing amd then pushing the button.
So this has been a family affair - Mickey and Ken laid out the strategy,
Phillip drilled the holes and Brett loaded and sequenced the explosives.
The end result pleased everyone.
Some last minute instruction from Mickey
Since this was Brett's day, I thought it would be fun to try to catch
the blast and Brett together. Here is Brett just before he starts the blast
T = .4 sec A small vertical column of smoke appears next to the Grace leg
(to the left)
T = .8 sec - here the smoke region appears to be moving to the right
T = 1.2 sec - and by now, there is enough data to suggest that the
ignition sequence is propagating from left to right.
T = 1.6 sec
T = 2.0 sec
T = 2.4 sec
T = 3.6 sec
T = 5.6 sec
T = 9.2 sec - its all over
Then after the smoke clears, Leon comes in to start cleaning up
and Ken comes to inspect the results
At the same time, our ironworkers are burning away on the Pearman truss
A closer view
and maybe this is Nugget waving?
The iron worker setup
and elevator
After the event, I looked around and though - hmmmm, probably our ironworker
friends have been watching
Then back to work - burning
On my way home, Bob McCabe was directing the finishing touches on
clearing the Grace off ramp - with Ryan playing on the grapple
another view - and the wall from yesterday is history today