Changing the face of Charleston : The unbuilding of the Grace and Pearman Bridges
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(Apr 10)
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(Jul 10 2006)
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After the blast - The Eddie R moved us over to P-11 where Paul, Mickey and Ken were using a template to guide the underwater drilling.

The challenge is to drill vertical holes into the base of P-11 - which extends out about 5 feet around the visible base. The template is used to align the drilling sleeve - which will drill down about 4 inches. Then another drill bit and drive shaft will be inserted into the sleeve for drilling the deeper hole. Once complete, the inner bit and drive shaft will be removed and the hold loaded with dynamite and stimming and ignition shock tubes.
The Copco does the drilling with the O'Dell brothers managing the drilling.

Here is a group of sleeves - about 5" in diameter

and the carbide teeth that do the drilling

and the level for varying the orientation of the sleeve into a vertical position as it passes through the drilling template (see below)

Paul Achorn and the P-11 template

Ken's drawing of the drilling template

Chris Wakeman, Lewis and James

Lewis, Chris and Derrick (of the O'Dell clan)

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