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)
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(Feb 20)
Unbuilding Stories
(Mar 13)
Video and Sounds
(Feb 28)

July 17, 2006: Sparky and the Jay Cashman - aka 995
Clean-up after Mickey is taking on a new meaning.

The 995 is a mega scooper-upper, or I suppose in technical terms, a mega grapple. We first met the 995 on June 20. Then when C-2 was dropped, Mike Grice asked how one cleans up after Mickey. Here is more of the 995 story from Sparky.

You would not believe the Excavator! They put a new engine in and it cost 
$ 1,000,000.00. It makes a lot of noise and is very powerful! They are 
rebuilding the old engine at the tune of $ 600,000.00. They just finished 
installing the grappler and all the lines and by the weekend or next week 
it will be in full operation. They will have someone that was running 
before come down and take control of it. 

Body Parts

Meet the 995's mouth

and neck

and neck extension

and body

from below

The engine

Is this the fuel injection system?

Exhaust and fuel lines?

Control position

Sparky at the controls

Mufflers and exhaust

This is the array of tubes that pass the hydraulic fluid from somewhere to the grapple and neck. Thus spake Sparky !

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