The new Cooper River Bridge (Arthur Ravenel Bridge) has a 1546 foot main span, the longest cable-stayed span in North America. Each side span is 650 fee and the end psans are 225 feet resulting in a main span unit length of 3,296 feet. Each main span tower is 570 feet tall and supported by 11 drilled shafts. Each shaft is 10 feet in diameter and extends 230 feet down. This supporting structure is protected from ship impacts by rock islands surrounding the tower foundations.

The first foundation drilling started in April 2002 and construction was completed by July 2005, one year ahead of schedule. The tower, cable and main span construction was staggered so that any problems encountered with the west segment could be resolved and incorporated with contruction of the east segment. Consequently when viewing the photos, the east tower height is slightly less than the west tower hight until completed. The project was a design-build project. Design-Build is a construction project delivery process used to reduce construction time by overlapping some of the design with various phases of the construction. The result was completion one year ahead of schedule.

K1-K3 Construction of the new bridge over the Cooper River was begun in April of 2002 with the drilling of the tower support shafts. There is a lot underneath the water which we do not see. The first two photos were provided courtesy of SC DOT while Alvin Swails, tower crane operator of the east tower crane provided the 3rd photo. These show the initial construction of the bottom sections of the diamond bases. The entire foundation of the project rests on these rock islands

K4-5 The pylons grew week after week. Each main span tower is 570 feet tall and supported by 11 drilled shafts. Each shaft is 10 feet in diameter and extends 230 feet down. This supporting structure is protected from ship impacts by rock islands surrounding the tower foundations.

In August 2003, I began to keep this record for my grandchildren. As the weeks passed, I became more and more fascinated by the processes of bridge construction (being an engineer) and so began to pursue more detail. These photos show the development of the west (taller) and east towers (pylons) as seen from the South Carolina Aquarium.

K6-8 In May, 2004 I added photos taken each Saturday or Sunday during a morning bicycle ride across the Pearman bridge. I could more closely watch the building processes and the construction of the mainspan (roadbed) platforms, cantilevering out from the diamond pylons and held in place by the cable stays.

There are 64 cable stays attached to each tower, 32 supporting the east span and 32 supporting the west span. Thus there are a total of 128 cable bundles. Each cable bundle is comprised of 31 to 90 steel strands depending on the length and load of the roadbed, with bundles of 31 strand cables closest to the tower and bundles of 90 strands farthest away. The edge girders with the steel anchors for the cable stays have a distinct fin and are called shark fin girders. You can see them projecting upward from the edges of the roadbed. By May 2004, to my photos from the SC Aquarium, I added photos taken early each Saturday or Sunday morning from my bicycle as I rode across the Pearman bridge. Here I would watch the building processes: construction of the mainspan (roadbed) platforms, cantilevering out from the pylons and held in place by the cable stays. There are 64 cables were attached to each tower, 32 supporting the east span and 32 supporting the west span for a total of 128 cables. Each cable was comprised of 31 to 90 strands depending on length and load with the 31 stand cables adjacent to the tower and the 90 strand cables linking anchors along the main and back span edge girders. Because the edge girders and the steel anchors appeared as a shark fin, the edge girders were called shark fin girders.

K9 In July, 2004, SCDOT enabled me to visit the main span with David Wertz, one of the DOT engineers. It was foggy and this picture of the early bridge construction encased in fog captured the development of the bridge from an idea.

Fog was the least of the weather challenges for the design of the bridge. The bridge was designed to withstand wind speeds up to 190 mph and during construction, the main span was anchored to the rock islands with temporary hurricane cables.

K10-11 Early morning bicycle rides provided a unique view of the fabricated steel grid, bathed in the early morning sun.

K12-14 The cable stays provide the support of the main span. After pulling the master strand, Freyssinet workers pulled and tensioned two strands at a time. Each cable was terminated to a circular plate within the shark fin anchor assembly and a similar anchor assembly in the tower. A wedge was slipped over each strand and seated into its specific hole within each terminating plate. Final tensioning was done after the mainspan was completed by using a hydraulic unit.

K15 The pride of the workers was apparent everywhere. Here Marvin Tallent is releasing a flag placed as a symbol of our American dream.

K16 As construction continued the gap between the east and west main spans progressively closed.

K17 One of the final steel girders is put in place. Joining this shark fin girder with the opposite (west) side will be a splice plate cut to the correct size.

K18 View of the gap between the east and west main spans to be joined by a custom splice plate.

K19 With the splice plate bolted on one side (east side) it was now necessary to reposition the main span both horizontally and vertically so that the splice plate holes matched the holes drilled through the girders.

K20 One of the 200 ton hydraulic jacks used to move the main span segments together. The horizontal separation was about 3.5 inches. Vertical alignment was achieved by moving ballast toward or away from the gap (see concrete bloks to the left and right of the open space..

K21-22 Bolting the plates. With the left side bolted, you can see the light filtering through the last vertial column of holes on the right girder. These holes must match the first vertical column of holes in the splice plate.

With the hydraulic jacks correcting the horizontal alignment pins are inserted in the splice plate and through the girder in order to hold the splice plate in position while the other holes are bolted.

K23 With the west and east segments aligned and spliced the precast concrete road segments were lowered into place onto the top of the girders linking the north and south edges of the main span.

K24 Final pouring and finishing of the roadbed. Peo Halversson from Skanska is shown here discussing the last details for placement of the concrete road segments.

One of the hallmarks of this project from my perspective was the close personal relationship between all workers on the bridge. Literally, lives depended on close, accurate and timely communication. The management of this project was excellent. Everyone worked as part of a team. I often noticed this when looking over their shoulders to take these pictures.

K25-26 There were gaps between the precast sections of readbed. The rebar from each section was tied to the adjoining section and then concrete was poured into the gaps.

K27 No bridge is complete without some signs from the workers. Here, atop the west tower is a 2x2' concrete slab with names and a drawing of the rock island and diamond tower.

K28 - 30 Finished Bridge. First, Wade Watson worked with SC DOT to clear the bridge of all equipment and workers - a view of what Wade called a "clean bridge". Several weeks later, after the bridge was opened to traffic, we (and a number of mosquitos) watched, from the Mt. Pleasant side, the sun set behind the new Ravenel Bridge.