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