Tag: construction

Some of the Men and Women of The Ohio River Bridges Project

Posted on by Nick Roberts

Today’s post is a gallery of photos of some of the men and women of the Ohio River Bridges Project. As I go around the Ohio River Bridges Project I meet and talk with so many fine men and women who perform the arduous work of Heavy Highway and Bridge Construction.

Watching them work is a real eyeopener to the skills and strength they must bring to their work. One thing that really strikes home with me is how little complaining I hear. Everyone of them seems genuinely happy to be a part of such a historic project; many of them comment about the pride they feel to be involved. The work they are doing will change the face of Louisville and forever be a testament to their labors. I’m very fortunate to be able to share this historic project with them and thank each and every one of them for the kindness they show me as I go about my work too.

Click on any image to open a slideshow of today’s images.

I-65 Southbound Section Was Nearing Completion

Posted on by Nick Roberts
Carpenters form retaining wall on Southbound I-65 near Slugger Field
Carpenters form retaining wall on Southbound I-65 near Slugger Field

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During the last days of construction of Phase One, Section One, of the I-65 Southbound Section, on the Ohio River Bridges Project the activity was fast and furious. There were areas that needed to be paved and concrete forms that needed building in order to stay on schedule and have it open for traffic by Sunday night.

In some of the following photos of the I-65 Southbound Section you will see areas that were almost completed and had the yellow and white traffic lane lines in place. In others the people were hard at work putting the finishing touches on their work.

Everyone was working long hours on the I-65 Southbound Section as the schedule was for 24 hours a day so the crews were constantly moving. In this group of photos you can see the amount of progress that was made in a single day. I was there early in the morning to catch the first light of day and returned in early evening to capture the progress and take advantage of the sunset light in the sky and clouds.

All the images in this post are HDR images from three frame bracket sets of +2, 0 and -2 EV exposures that were then merged in NIK HDR Efex Pro 2 and finished with Aperture 3. Using HDR techniques allows me to capture the broad dynamic range that exists at these times of day and to then use the tone mapping tools to reveal details in the shadows while also capturing the vibrance in the clouds and sky.

Looking north on the new section of southbound I-65
Looking north on the new section of southbound I-65

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Looking north on the new section of southbound I-65 near Witherspoon Street just before it was opened to traffic.
Looking north on the new section of southbound I-65 near Witherspoon Street just before it was opened to traffic.

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Looking south on the new section of southbound I-65 near Witherspoon Street just before it was opened to traffic.
Looking south on the new section of southbound I-65 near Witherspoon Street just before it was opened to traffic.

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Looking north on the new section of southbound I-65 #2
Looking north on the new section of southbound I-65 #2

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Looking north on the new section of southbound I-65 #2
Looking north on the new section of southbound I-65 #2

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View from the North Tower of the Downtown Span of the Ohio River Bridges Project

Posted on by Nick Roberts
View from the north tower of the downtown span
Looking out on the job site from the north tower of the Ohio River Bridges Project.

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Howdy everyone. It’s been weeks since I last posted about my ongoing project to chronicle the progress of the Ohio River Bridges Project here in Louisville. I’ve been quite busy with several other aspects of my personal project of photographing the bridge building process and the men and women who are building it. When I began this project I had no idea how truly monumental and time consuming it would be.

The last bridge/construction project I worked on was much smaller and didn’t fully prepare me for the scope of a major civil engineering project such as the Ohio River Bridges Project. When I photographed the Big Four Pedestrian Bridge and the men who did it I was working with a crew that numbered less than thirty people. In contrast the Ohio River Bridges Project involves not only the main span across the Ohio River but also a complete realignment and reconstruction of the area known as Spaghetti Junction. A project of this magnitude requires hundreds of people to accomplish and really expands my personal involvement. In Spaghetti Junction there are over fifty bridges and overpasses that will be needed to connect the new bridge to the Interstates that converge in Louisville. While the downtown span will carry northbound I-65 it must also join I-64 and I-71in Spaghetti Junction.

I have had to learn how to pace myself and how to best record the progress being made. In addition to the photography challenges I face there is the need to catalog, process and organize the thousands of photographs that I have already taken. Over this past winter I discovered that I needed to greatly expand my storage equipment to accommodate the massive amount of images I am recording. I had to upgrade several hard drives and take control of the photos or face utter chaos as the project grew. I thrive on challenges and this project has been the largest challenge I have faced as a professional photographer.

I lost the first two months of 2014 to personal health issues that prevented me from getting out to the job site as much as I wanted. I also had to contend with the extreme weather that gripped Louisville and slowed the construction. That is all past me now and I’m back to shooting regularly. I have upgraded my storage media and improved my workflow to allow me to capture the images I need to tell the story.

This week I was able to get out on the river and survey the progress that has been made getting the piers drilled and in place. The northern tower is progressing well and the tower crane is being assembled on it. The two towers that make up the northern tower are already taking shape and it was possible for me to climb up the western one and get the image that begins this post. In the weeks to come I will be climbing higher on these towers to shoot the Ironworkers and Carpenters as they build them.

 

Bridge Piling ala Cadillac Ranch in HDR

Posted on by Nick Roberts
HDR image of Two Rows of Piling on the eastern end Spaghetti Junction
Bridge Foundation Piling in Spaghetti Junction

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These large bridge pilings stand almost ten feet into the air. When I first saw them I thought of the art installation Cadillac Ranch located alongside Interstate 40 in Amarillo Texas. I have stopped at Cadillac Ranch each time I have ridden through Amarillo and they have that same feeling of a larger than life presence and iconic mystery. What if the world ended today and a future archeologist were to come upon them? Would they be seen as something akin to Stonehenge or other religious structures? Would anyone even surmise that they were simply a part of the foundation for a super highway?

As I photographed them I enjoyed the way they towered above me. I was also drawn to enter the space they occupied and felt as if I were in a temple or sacred structure. I shot around and inside them for several minutes and then forgot about them until I downloaded that day’s shoot. As I reviewed the shots I was immediately drawn to this image and made it my first choice to process that day.

To create this HDR image I first took the bracket set into NIK HDR Efex Pro 2 and then completed it in Aperture 3. By using HDR and a three frame bracket set I was able to capture the texture and tones inside the pilings and the lettering and colors on their surface while still maintaining the faint white clouds in the mottled blue sky. After that I decided to experiment with Topaz Adjust which added texture and tonality to the final result, seen above, when I applied the Spicify preset and made some minor adjustments to it’s settings. Even though there is some slight haloing along the top edges of the pilings I really like the results.

Pattern and Texture Closeups

Posted on by Nick Roberts
Closeup of Rusty Retaining Straps
Closeup of Rusty Retaining Straps

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Whenever I’m on a job site I keep my eye open for interesting patterns and textures to shoot as closeups or macro images. On this particular day I was on the job site to capture a large crane that had been brought in for a pick that night. I was scouting for good vantage points to capture the crane at work that evening when I came upon these retaining wall straps in the material storage area. I was intrigued by the surface texture and the undulating pattern that they revealed so I took a few bracket sets to work with later.

I almost always work in HDR and I decided to merge three frames in NIK HDR Efex Pro 2 and experiment with them. For this first image I applied the Balanced Preset and then boosted the definition to enhance the texture of the oxidized steel and reinforce the pattern. I included the long shadow in the upper left of the frame and the short shadow in the lower right side to create a sense of depth and movement in the final composition. After returning the merged file to Aperture 3 I adjusted the mid-contrast and boosted the  saturation and luminance in the red and yellow color channels. I then applied sharpening and a small vignette to complete the image.

Retaining Straps Closeup
Retaining Straps Closeup

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I used a similar workflow for this image of the same straps that had been opened up and stacked for use. In this case I also worked in the blue color channel to contrast the blue and orange colors.

Closeup of Retaining Straps in Black and White
Closeup of Retaining Straps in Black and White

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The final image is a Black and White version I created using Topaz B&W Effects and a Platinum preset. I also applied a white vignette and a frame from the same software before returning it to Aperture 3 for final contrast and sharpness adjustments.