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)

November 10, 2005:
Harvesting Pearman Girders

Early morning and here is an inside view of the Pearman supports (looking west), a sleeping 1250 and the Grace skeleton

Soon the 1250 wakes up (Michael's alarm) and he starts hammering away at the top of the next pier cap. Notice to the left - the water to minimize dust

On the other side of the street is Chris and his 7550 for a little girder picking action this morning

The burners are cutting the cross members that couple the left outside and adjacent girders

a closer look at burning

When Chris tried to lift the girder, the far end cross braces did not break - so

Chris placed the girder back on the near pier cap

and then the guys elevated themselves to make a final burn

which freed the girder. I have stiched together a group of photos showing the acrobatics that Chris must do with the girder to move it from the top of the pier cap to its resting place. Click for a 9 Mb mpg video segment

and placed so that it can be cut into shorter segments

that can be loaded into a truck and removed

and in the meantime, Michael has removed the left section of the pier cap

A last look at the worksite

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