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

March 25, 2006:
Michael's headache and some crane rebuilding

Last week, we had Mickey's farewell to Frank and Mickey's farewell to the T-3 substructure - which I prefer to call tenacity of purpose. Well Michael is at it again - hammering away at T-3's sister, P-3, a large Grace pier.

Looking closer, you'll see red marks along the edge of the support. These are 10 feet apart and represent a tenacity meter. Michael (and probably Steve Testa) can measure the intensity of purpose required to bring down the solid columns on either side and the hollow interior. But there is a problem. Can you imagine Michael, even in his tilted cab, looking up 130 feet in order ot surgically place his hammer and unbuild this Grace pier? Call it a headache? I'd say that to undo the bend in Mike's neck will require at least 2.5 weeks of intensive therpy - probably with Joshua, Samatha and Stephanie - with Tina as the cheer leader.

Meanwhile on the Mt Pleasant side a story of legacies: - Here is the worksite: Cousin Arthur watching the unbuilding of Grace and the Pearman

A section of the Grace support

Pio's legacy - how much sidewalk does Joe Duffy think Pio and his team made?

Manny's legacy - look at all the missing supports

L

Derek and Mammoet's legacy - no main span

Meanwhile out at the Navy repair center - Chucky and our ironworkers are busy unbuilding the crane's boom

Pulling a pin is sort of like pulling a tooth -requires a bit of encouragement

Which Chris in the driver's seat - Steve DeMello has some competition for the #8 and #3 car

Sparky at his best - this time, inside the crane's boom

The section to be replaced

with a bit of encouragement, of course

Separation of the sections

the new section

Positioning the new section

Closer

Almost aligned to the encouragement position

Insert the pin

and encourage

Then encouraging the bottom pin

Meanwhile - Jerome doing a double jaw procedure

in his shop

with a bit of encouragement (a universal concept in the unbuilding trade)

And back at Michael's headache - his high reach encourager unbuilding P-3

Note the position of Michael's cab just to the right of the middle spud. Even at this angle - a bit of neck action is required. What he needs is one of those astronaut reclining seats so that he can immediately visualize that is happening at the top of the pier. Maybe even a zero G environment would help. Can you image a 12 hour shift of looking 130 ft. up without getting a stiff neck. Time to get NASA involved in our unbuilding project and send Michael to Bob McCabe's therapist

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