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.

February 24, 2007: Drilling the last Grace pier

The end is near. Michael Hebb is hollowed the inner core of the last Grace pier. Ken and Mickey have marked the drilling spots and today - our quartet of Carlos and Robbie on the top man lift with Michael and Ben (who looks just like his brother Stan) on the lower man lift. Actually this is a quintet for 4 drillers and the moon - which you will see from time to time below.

THe worksite - with Carlos and Robbie in the man lift and Manny's crane to the right

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But first - on Wednesday, Mickey will implode the T-2 substructure - here already drilled and ready for loading: looking south

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and looking north

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Another view of the worksite

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The barge setup with the man lift

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Here an almost-X marks the spot - Carlos and Robbie above and Michael and Ben below

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and Michael and Ben below

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Carlos - the flag planter on the Grace mainspan (last March 1) giving Sparky the ok.

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Robbie drilling with the pneumatic drill. How does Robbie know where to drill?

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Ken and Mickey have diagrammed the drilling pattern

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as seen here

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Robbie letting the drill do the work while Carlos just chills a bit

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While below, Ben is drilling while Michael does his thing

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The gentle force of the man basket keeping the pressure on the drill as it penetrates the concrete

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With the moon looking on - sort of as a supervisor

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Some Sparky art work - the Ravenel between two piling supports

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Robbie doing some serious drilling

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Then Carlos removes the bit and

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and removes the extension

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inserts it for starting a new hole

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carefully

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Inserting and locking the bit

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and positioning the man basket

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and starts drilling

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with the moon to the right

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Another good view of the worksite

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Michael and Ben - going up

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until they are in position

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What a picture - Carlos and Ben above the moon while Michael and Ben are below the moon

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With a flag flying from Manny's crane

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Ben drilling

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Our quartet

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With the moon

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and Sparky on the way home

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See ya'll Wednesday

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

C. Frank Starmer

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