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.
It all started with dropping the cantilever section of the Pearman over Town Creek.. The task now is to retrieve the girders and unbuild T-3. November 15, 2005: Explosing T-3 after dropping the cantilever section of the Pearman over Town Creek
December 6, 2006: after removing the Pearman girders from Town Creek
December 12, 2006: Positioning the barges and crane
The cap disappeared while Sparky and I were asleep at the throttle. January 1, 2006:
January 5, 2006: The jackup barge at work
January 7, 2006: The jackup barge continues
January 9, 2006: Hammering away at the cross member from the jackup barge.
January 11, 2006: Now working on the columns from the jackup barge
January 12, 2006: Michael and his high reach 1250 working on one side and the jackup barge on the other.
January 16, 2006: like a bad tooth extraction
January 21, 2006: after imploding T-4
January 26, 2006:
February 2, 2006: There is light at the end of the tunnel
February 7, 2006: One column down and one to go
February 17, 2006: There is light at the end of the tunnel
March 1, 2006: More light at the end of the tunnel - the other column almost
gone
March 11, 2006: To the left Silas and Brett drilling 45' holes
with the John Henry for the March 22 implosion.
March 18, 2006: Ready for loading
March 22, 2006: Task complete
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
C. Frank Starmer