Unbuilding the Grace and Pearman Bridges

For Sparky and myself, curiosity drives passion which in turn fuels our life's engine. Our passion was capturing the story of both unbuilding the Grace (1929 - 2007) and Pearman (1966 - 2007) Bridges and discovering the unbuilders. It takes a lot of passion to track a project from July 2005 until April 2007 - rain, shine, hurricanes or moving to Singapore. We discovered the joy of discovery learning. Ken Canty opened the front door for us - then Steve Testa, Ponch Billingsley and Mickey Rogers opened many side doors. Below are the highlights of what we discovered, who we met and what we learned.

And a reminder from T.S. Eliot (East Coker from the Four Quartets)

Home is where one starts from. As we grow older
The world becomes stranger, the pattern more complicated
Of dead and living. Not the intense moment
Isolated, with no before and after,
But a lifetime burning in every moment
And not the lifetime of one man only
But of old stones that cannot be deciphered.

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August 10, 2006: Cooper River Update - Drilling C-3

Sparky has been working on the book. I've been watching unbuilding in Singapore - without Mickey's assistance. What a difference 12 time zones make.

Drilling with backflow

More drilling on the Pearman piers next to the Sea Breeze

A closer view

and look at Cousin Arthur

The worksite with the 995 in the sleeping position

Looking along the Ravenel Bridge ramp

Paul Achorn on the left and Sonny on the right

Pulling stuff from the river mud

Hmmm - Manny has been fishing here

Hmmm - is this a Riverdog in disguise

Friendly waves from the fishing team

And some burning to cut the base of a Grace support (I think)

Manny's fishing rig

The residual superstructure between the Seabreeze and the Port

From the other side

Meanwhile here is Mickey's new Copco

And the old Copco to the right

Remember back in June when I spent the day with Ken and the O'Dell brothers - drilling P-12. This has a familiar ring to it and looks like another drilling template wrapped around P-something

Sonny lighting the cutting torch

and cutting a hole for the drilling sleeve

And burned through

and Sonny from the other side

and yet another angle. Note the shock tubes leading down to the underwater explosives - dropped down the shaft drilled by the Copco.

Here is the drilling sleeve being coupled to another sleeve

Here is P-10 (I think) ready for Mickey

And Prof. Rogers and his team of learners coupling two drilling sleeves

One turn at a time

and another

Looking down the drilling sleeve

Sonny burning the next drilling guide hole in the template

The idea is that first Mickey slides the drilling sleeve through the hold in the collar wrapped around the pier base. The drilling sleeve has a group of carbide cutting tips on the end and the old Copco drills down about 6 inches into the concrete pier foundation. With the drilling sleeve stabilized at the bottom (underwater and within the submerged pier apron), a smaller bit is used to drill down 30 - 40' where the charges will be placed.

A view from above

and a wider view

Here the new Copco is Drilling the charge hole with a bit and shaft within the external drilling sleeve

Here the new Copco is drilling the hole for charges

This is a good view of drilling through the collar guide hole. The red cups cover the tops of holes drilled on the top surface of the pier - to minimize rain water from filling the holes