[This message has been edited by theogre (edited 06-12-2024).]

quote Originally posted by Sage: Amazing.....like Lilliputians figuring out how to get Gulliver off the beach! The removal looks to be as much, if not more of a challenge than the original construction of the bridge, though I figure the builders would take exception to that observation. What an enormous undertaking...but...somebody's gotta do it! HAGO!

One of my very first away-from-home jobs as a teenager was with a company named Austin Road and Bridge Co. Building the (then) new I-10 bridge over the San Jacinto River between Channelview Texas and Baytown Tx, probably around1966-67. It was just 2-3 miles drive from my house. My twin brother and I both. One of our jobs, was up on 20' high (or higher) scaffolds with various size chipping hammers and jack hammers, chipping off concrete from the vertical pilings to expose the 1" diameter steel rebar so they could form up and pour the horizontal supports that the roadway would sit on. The horizontal concrete had to be poured onto the rebar. (they don't do it that way nowadays) OSHA would have a cow if they saw us up there, sometimes standing upright on the vertical pilings, and even balanced on top of the rebar itself. We were invincible, bulletproof and could still jump over tall buildings....

I ran a dozer on that job too. My first D8 sized machine. Many times I later drover over that bridge, thinking and even telling my kids... "I built this bridge".
Now, it's 'the old bridge', a newer one has been built right beside it and yet another is planned.
yep, I'm old and it would be considered child labor today but we made good $$ back then when gas was still .25/gallon..

[This message has been edited by maryjane (edited 06-13-2024).]