A few shots from my last trip up on the Tower Four crane. The crane is down now and Marcus has retired to Arizona. It sure was fun to be up there with him and to get a chance to see the world from his vantage point.
The work on the Ohio River Bridges Project Downtown Span is moving so fast it is becoming more and more difficult to shoot, edit and post the photos I’m getting now. With Ironworkers, Raising Gangs and Cable Stay Gangs, working feverishly to complete their tasks it is hectic to say the least.
Last week the Ohio River Bridges Downtown Span grew another 180 feet in length. The cable stays on Tower Five were completed and the scaffolding to the top of the towers was removed. One of the cranes being used to build the bridge structure blew an engine but that didn’t keep the structural gang from completing the building of another 45 feet of bridge.
The photos in this post are both three frame HDR mergers and single frame images. In all cases the image was first adjusted for sharpness and color saturation in Adobe Camera Raw followed by a trip into Photoshop CS5 for lens correction when needed. I also used Topaz Clarity to bring out the texture and contrast which I applied to a separate layer; in several cases the opacity of the Topaz Clarity layer was reduced to between 25 -75%.
Click on the image to enlarge it.
Toady’s image is of Eric Faulkner an Operating Engineer on the Ohio River Bridges Project. Downtown Span. I chose this image because I like the composition and the way Eric can be seen in the cab of the forklift while in the background the louisville skyline is seen through the window. The narrow slot where Eric can be seen and the fact that it takes a second to see him in there are both elements that draw me to this photo.
Eric is one of those people who are often overlooked when observing a construction job like this. Because he is inside a machine such as this forklift he becomes simply another part of the scene. His expertise with all manner of heavy equipment makes him an invaluable part of the day to day tasks that must be accomplished in order for the work to progress in a timely manner. Not only is Eric responsible for operating this forklift he also has the task of operating the two job cranes located on top of the bridge towers on Pier Three. He often has to climb the 300 feet of scaffolding several times a day to get to the top of one of the towers to lift material for the people working on the cable stay gang. Imagine climbing 30 stories to get to the top of one of the towers to run the jib crane then having to climb back down and then climb up the other tower just to operate that jib crane for a few minutes. Along with that role he may need to also climb into the forklift and move material around the bridge deck between times he is on top of the towers.
This group of images shows the progress of the Downtown Span of the Ohio River Bridges Project. The bridge deck is nearing completion as the Ironworker’s Structural Gang and Cable Stay Gangs extend the bridge decks on all three towers toward one another. It won’t be long until all the structural steel and cables are in place and the bridge will be one piece from shore to shore.
Click on an image to enlarge it.
Click on an image to enlarge it.
Click on an image to enlarge it.
Click on an image to enlarge it.
Click on an image to enlarge it.
For this final panorama I decided to convert the scene to black and white simply to see what effect it would have on the image when compared to the color images.
