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.
Part 2 - The worksite
Nugget on this way up
Carlos - always looking out for everyone
While Lewis positions himself to start unbuilding the 1st section
Lewis - foolin' around with the shackles
and removing the lift cables from the first section
You can always tell its Lewis - blue is his favorite color. (Check out Lewis on March 18 and and 3 months later, June 7 when Ken and Mickey were using the collar to guide the substructure drilling)
A small smile from Carlos
A very interesting photo - Lewis in position 3, the prone position, while Carlos is scoring the position - in this case, Lewis gets and 8 out of 10
Lewis decoupling another shackle
as seen from below - both worksites
From a different angle
Nugget in position 1, the riding position
Just like a medical operating theater - everything in its place
With Paul carefully watching
Chris in his 7550
supporting the last part of the Grace superstructure
Manny
and Lewis
Another view of the worksite
and Robbie with a smile while Nugget is very happy about something
Manny moves the lift cables into position. You can see the holes in the tops of the girders for placing the lift cables
Nuggest grabs one
while Carlos cuts a hole
Moving the lift cables into position while Chris stabilizes the total structure
Randi from SCDOT, definite improvement over Lewis's blue shirt
and Rick Larsen - demonstrating an alternate stabilization procedure
Manny's cables are in the 2-b-connected position - Carlos on the far side with Robbie and Nugget on the near side
as Carlos pulls one into position
You can see Nugget working on this side with the cable end passing through the hole in the girder
Randi practicing for the next episode of Project Runway
Carlos and Robbie with a new, undocumented tandem position - #13
and the cutting starts
A good view of Manny's support cables, cutting in the middle and Chris' stabilizing position
More cutting
Carlos cutting while Robbie supervises
While Nugget is cutting on the other side (hidden)
and end view of the worksite
and Nugget just being Nugget
Robbie checking the cables
Close quarters cutting by Carlos
more cutting
and also on the other side
A better view of Nugget making his cut
And a good view of the stabilization provided by Chris and Manny
A variation of the tandem position - Robbie in the sitting supervisor position while Carlos cuts
and making good progress
Carlos almost completing his top cut
A quick inspection - and ready for Manny
who starts his playtex procedure: lift and separate
Free and clear
Manny rotates
and down it comes
down
with Paul directing traffic
Paul and Lewis positioning the section
Its down
and Manny is pleased
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
C. Frank Starmer