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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January 14, 2007: No more Pearman piers - T-2 implosion

Video Segments

Riding across the Ravenel Bridge with Sparky at 3:02 pm

The worksite: Grace pier to the left (where Michael will punch a hole and remove the inner shell), Manny's crane with Manny in the driver's seat, T-2 behind him and the Ravenel Bridge in the background.

Stacked containers as a blast barrier on the left

Ken and Randy up for a last check of the setup

Before

Click image for full display.
Here is the frame by frame sequence of ignition and detonation

T = 0 msec T = 33 msec

T = 66 msec T = 100 msec

T = 133 msec Note the shock tube track from the columns to the cross member T = 166 msec

T = 200 msec T = 233 msec

T = 266 msec T = 300 msec

T = 333 msec T = 366 msec

T = 400 msec T = 433 msec

T = 533 msec Note shock tube ignition at the cap and detonation at the base of the left column T = 566 msec

T = 466 msec T = 500 msec

T = 600 msec T = 633 msec

T = 666 msec T = 700 msec

T = 733 msec T = 766 msec

T = 800 msec T = 833 msec

T = 866 msec T = 900 msec

T = 933 msec T = 966 msec

T = 1000 msec T = 1033 msec

T = 1066 msec T = 1100 msec

T = 1133 msec T = 1166 msec

T = 1200 msec T = 1233 msec

Shock tube ignition (see right column about 1/3 up from the base)

Initial blast: note the lateral dispersion of debris on both the left and right columns

And compare with Friday's T-1 blast where the right column was wrapped with chain link fence
and the left column was unwrapped

and then collapse of T-2

with smoke

but not much else

After

After close

From the dock - no T-2, only blast barriers. Next job, Mickey and Ken will bring out the Copco and start drilling vertical blast holes to remove the base and sub-structures.

Going home for dinner with Sparky

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

C. Frank Starmer