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)

September 16, 2006:
Releasing Grace's grip on her foundation

This is part 3 - Detaching Grace from her foundation. In part 1 Chris, his 7550 and his iron-worker acrobats removed the roadway support girders from the top of the pier. In part 2, we watched Chris, Lewis, Carlos and Robbie do a little divide and conquor act. They removed the midsection of the Grace pier. Here, the detach the pier form the concrete base and then Chris does a lifting act.

The worksite - adjacent to the Sea Breeze Marina boat storage area

Here Carlos is inspecting the coupling to the concrete footing.

And then starts his burn

and it looks like the paint decides to burn

Cutting around another footing

Carefully

then from below

Robbie is working on around another of the footings

again, carefully cutting

Meanwhile, Chris is stablizing the entire structure

Once free, Chris gently lifts the structure off the concrete footings

a little rotation action

A good look at Chris at his best

then gently lowering the section

down to the ground - with Lewis (?) directing traffic

And down it rests

ready to continue unbuilding - first detaching the support cables

and the section is free

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