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:
Unbuilding the midsection of the truss

Here is the worksite - Grace's tower, Chris's 7550 crane in the launching position and Robbie, Lewis and Carlos ready to start phase II.

Lewis (left in his blue shirt - he must have 7, one for each day; Carlos and Robbie) ready to attach the cables for Chris

Robbie starting his acrobat warmup

The cables to the left and the acrobats to the right

Chris moves the cable into position

Lewis attaching the cable

A closer look at Lewis and his blue shirt(s)

Wrapping the cable around the cross brace

Carlos demonstrating the spread-eagle acrobat position while lewis hands the cable around the back of the beam

Robbie here is just chillin' a bit

The cable is now looped around the far vertical beam

and placed just under the cross braces

What Chris sees from below

All 4 cables in place

and Robbie moves into position for some burning

Burning through the vertical beam

Carlos burning

A closer look

sort of an after-burner

Robbie burning

Cutting a cross brace

Carlos working on another section

Chris and his 7550 support the structure while

Robbie makes an inspection

and a look at from Chris's perspective

Carlos burning through the splice plate

and Robbie backing him up (literally)

The final burn

Coming down

and Chris lifts up

Grace is free

Gently lifting - what a balancing act

From below

Gently

and turning

a bit more

up, up and away

and slowly down

down

down

down

the landing spot is in sight

down

down

down

down

Gentlemen, Grace has landed

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