Changing the face of Charleston : The unbuilding of the Grace and Pearman Bridges
Frank's Internet Home Page
Blog: 2005
Archives of unbuilding sections
Blog: 2006
The story of building the Ravenel Bridge
Visit our
Adventures in Singapore
Click to view all web page segments
I enjoy hearing from you. If you have comments and suggestions, write me.


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 21 2005: Removing roadway segments

Watching from the Grace Bridge, here Pio, Michael, complete with his CAT 345 grapple and surgical skills, Jim with his forklife and superb driving skills, uproot each segment and transport it to the base of the bridge for recycling

. Click for a video segment(15 Mb)

Getting ready:

placing the grapple under the segement in order to take a small bite

Next, Michael rotates the segment into a vertical position

and completes the bite. Michael then turns around and places the segment on Jim's forklift

Here he is rotating his 345 with a concrete segment in his grapple

He then lowers the segment

Gently putting it to sleep

Later Jim approaches the segment from the left

and Michael lifts it enough for the forks to support the roadway segment.

Then its off to the recycling area at the base of the bridge.

Click to view all unbuilding web page segments

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

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