Changing the face of Charleston : The unbuilding of the Grace and Pearman Bridges
Frank's Internet Home Page
Blog: 2005
Archives of unbuilding sections
Blog: 2006
The story of building the Ravenel Bridge
Visit our
Adventures in Singapore
Click to view all web page segments
I enjoy hearing from you. If you have comments and suggestions, write me.


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 28, 2006:
Downhill unbuilding the Grace

Watch Roy display Grace-ful removal of roadway segments (4 Mb mpg)

The Grace worksite - working backward down the ramp

Roy, Sonny and Richie

while Steve is cutting the next 6 segment grid of roadway segments

Sparks fly while Steve cuts through the angle iron cap of the left shoulder

A milestone - unbuilding the main span and cantilever roadway is complete - and now, just Grace's skeleton. In the foreground, you can see the grid of roadway segments that Steve just completed.

While Steve is cutting, Pio and his jazz ensemble see a pair of dolphins

Roy mounts his tonka-on-steroids and reaches under the left roadway segment. I was so impressed with Roy's graceful management of the roadway segments that I synthesized a video (4 Mb mpg) that displays the entire sequence.

gently lifts the segment

gently picks it up

rotates and

gently lays it down

then rotates back for the next section

And of course, no meeting with Pio's team is complete without a view of jaws

Click to view all unbuilding web page segments

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

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