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Demolition of the Cooper River Bridges: Photos
May 17, 2006
8:15 AM
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Here is a link to all the videos of the bridge

May 17, 2006
7:58 AM
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I did, sounds like the picked it up and moved it to another location. I am suprised they got away with it. You know how the activist are about some of that stuff.

May 16, 2006
8:15 AM
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Did you read where they found a nest of baby hawks up on top of the last piece of bridge?

May 16, 2006
7:55 AM
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The largest blast in the demolition of the old Cooper River bridges echoed across Charleston this morning as more than 1,000 tons of steel from a 1,000-foot stretch of the Grace Memorial Bridge fell in a cloud of smoke and dust.

One more section of the superstructure is all that remains of the old bridge which dominated the Charleston skyline for 77 years. That section is near a marina on the Charleston side and workers will dismantle it instead of using explosives.

There will be one more blast to bring down a section of the Pearman Bridge. A second section near the marina will be lowered by hand.

March 10, 2006
6:49 AM
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I mainly posted it for information purposes. It was mainly due to the fact of the, like RDZ stated, just one more thing to have to deal with. I know that things are in place for this "actions" not to take place. It

March 9, 2006
1:05 PM
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Even with a detailed pre- and post-blast survey, as Robert said, you'll always have claims on a large project such as this. Even if your surveys prove without doubt that you did not cause the damage, you still have the expense of responding and dealing with every claim.

March 9, 2006
10:30 AM
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James,
I don't think it is nearly as bad as it sounds. It's very rare on any blasting job when you don't get at least one complaint. With the magnitude of this job it is to be expected. And now they have a politician involved, which makes the problem even worse.
With proper pre/post blast surveys and seismic monitoring they should be able to disprove 99% or > of the complaints.
I don't know if you are familiar with the neighborhood adjacent to the bridge or not but some of these houses haven't seen a coat of paint in 30 years. They see the deep pockets and want a piece of the pie.
I see another problem with the DOT representative playing intermediary between those alledgely affected and the contractors. It easy for the State guy to spend the contractors money and the State holds the purse strings anyway. So the contractor can fall into a "Catch 22" type situation.
There is another problem in dealing with a close knit community. If any settlementss are made for expediency sake then word travels very fast and it becomes like a shark feeding frenzy with everybody expecting a check.

March 9, 2006
9:24 AM
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This can't be good:

[font=Verdana]One by one, residents of [/font][font=Verdana]Charleston[/font][font=Verdana]'s [/font][font=Verdana]East Side[/font][font=Verdana] neighborhood stood Wednesday evening to voice their complaints. It didn't matter if the homeowners lived on [/font][font=Verdana]Cooper[/font][font=Verdana], [/font][font=Verdana]America[/font][font=Verdana], Meeting or Sheppard streets, the complaints were all the same: [/font]

[font=Verdana]Their homes are old [/font][font=Verdana]Charleston[/font][font=Verdana] homes, but they didn't have cracks in the walls, shifts in the foundation or hardwood floor planks separated from the subfloor until after demolition of the two old [/font][font=Verdana]Cooper[/font][font=Verdana]River[/font][font=Verdana] bridges began in August. [/font]

[font=Verdana]It is a problem that residents farther up the [/font][font=Verdana]Charleston[/font][font=Verdana] peninsula encountered during the construction of the new [/font][font=Verdana]Cooper[/font][font=Verdana]River[/font][font=Verdana] bridge. And just like during that construction project, the city of [/font][font=Verdana]Charleston[/font][font=Verdana] now has stepped in to act as a mediator between the contractor and community residents who feel their homes have been damaged by nearby demolition work. [/font]

[font=Verdana]"I think these people have legitimate claims," Charleston Councilman James Lewis said. "And very few people are being compensated, whether when the new bridge went up or when the old bridges are being taken down."[/font]
[font=Verdana]Lewis joined several other council members and representatives from the Transportation Department and the demolition contractor at the [/font][font=Verdana]East Side[/font][font=Verdana]Community Center[/font][font=Verdana] to hear the demolition-related complaints aired by residents.[/font]

[font=Verdana]To date, about a dozen claims have been received by the demolition contractor, the Jay Cashman Inc./Testa Corp. Transportation Department officials said about half the claims have been settled, the other half denied. The number of claims jumps to more than 75 if those filed during the construction of the [/font][font=Verdana]Arthur[/font][font=Verdana]Ravenel Jr.[/font][font=Verdana]Bridge[/font][font=Verdana] are included.[/font]

[font=Verdana]State transportation officials agreed to revisit all claims and to report back to city officials within three weeks. [/font]

[font=Verdana]At that time, one-on-one meetings likely will be held between residents and state transportation officials. [/font]

[font=Verdana]The city's transportation director, Hernan Pena, will oversee the meeting. Pena played the same role during the [/font][font=Verdana]Ravenel[/font][font=Verdana]Bridge[/font][font=Verdana]'s construction. He said nine times out of 10, the claims were settled during the meetings.[/font]

[font=Verdana]Marvetta Daniels is one [/font][font=Verdana]East Side[/font][font=Verdana] resident who, so far, has been compensated. [/font]

[font=Verdana]"I had cracks everywhere, and like so many of you, I heard them tell me there was no way the demolition could be causing them," Daniels said. "You have to be persistent."[/font]

[font=Verdana]Studies were conducted by WPC, a local firm hired by the contractor, before the start of the demolition project to determine how much the ground could shake without damaging nearby homes.[/font]

[font=Verdana]Of the 70 structures examined, 68 were determined to be in poor condition. But no close examination of the structural integrity of the buildings has been conducted by an independent firm.[/font]

[font=Verdana]"It's a known fact that in the black community, we've been historically neglected," said City Councilman Wendell Gilliard said. "We're saying that we don't want that to be the case or to even look like that's the case (with this project)." [/font]

[font=Verdana]Leland Colvin, project director with the Transportation Department, suggested residents record when they notice new damage and what is going on, at that time, on the demolition project. [/font]

March 3, 2006
12:55 PM
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This is the third instance that I know of of jacking down a span in the US. I think we are going to see a lot more of it. Their was always a fallacy that they conditions had to be perfect for the operation but it looked like it was kind of breezy down in SC>

March 3, 2006
7:14 AM
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Looks like the lowered a nice size sections on W[font=Verdana]ednesday. This section was [font=Verdana]430-feet-long, 446-ton span was lowered onto a barge and moved out.[/font][/font]

Here is another link to some videos and Wednesday's lowering

February 27, 2006
8:28 AM
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Here are some pictures of the lowering of the main span.

FinishedImage Enlarger

February 21, 2006
8:41 AM
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The clock starts ticking on the lowering of the main span tomorrow at 8 A.M.. I wish them luck (even though if they pull it off it will mena a lot less bridge blasting work in the future)

http://www.charleston.net/stor.....=localnews

January 24, 2006
8:01 PM
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It looks like they changed their minds and have now hired a Dutch firm to lower the center spans.

November 28, 2005
9:34 PM
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Same guy. Different site. He has it set up nicely.

http://oldcooperriverbridge.org

November 16, 2005
8:39 AM
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This guy updates his site almost every day. He has some pretty good shots of the blast

November 14, 2005
9:56 AM
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Great pictures Robert, thanks for sharing.

November 13, 2005
8:50 AM
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This is a good set of photos taken by Frank Starmer of the demolition of the Grace Memorial and Pearman Bridges in Charleston, South Carolina. The main span comes down this week.

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