These images are of the construction around the Slugger Field Section of I-65 for the Ohio River Bridges Project in Louisville, KY.
Tag: Ironworkers
Some of the Men and Women of The Ohio River Bridges Project
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.
Structural Steel Beams Have Begun Arriving for the Ohio River Bridges Project Downtown Span
Click on the image to enlarge it.
Another sign that the Downtown Span of the Ohio River Bridges Project is progressing is the delivery of the first structural steel beams to the project. The first loads of the structural steel beams for the Downtown Span arrived at the Port of Indiana a couple of weeks ago. These massive steel beams were unloaded there and will soon be used to build sub assemblies for the Downtown Span. They will be assembled on barges in the Ohio River and then towed down river to the job site where they will be lifted into place to begin building the actual bridge itself. I rode up there to shoot the unloading of them and to see first hand how massive they are.
The Walsh Construction job site is in the Port of Indiana which is located on the Ohio River near the eastern end of Six Mile Island. The first photo in this post shows a few of the structural steel beams sitting on trailers at the Port of Indiana. In the background the boom of the crane that will unload them rises into the morning sky.
Click on the image to enlarge it.
The massive size of these structural steel beams can be seen in the image above. The Ironworkers standing on the beam are around six feet tall and they seem tiny when contrasted with the beam itself. In this shot they are preparing to rig the structural steel beam for the pick.The lifting of material or equipment by a crane is known as a “pick”. Rigging a pick is critical work that requires attention to safety and detail as any mistake made then can have catastrophic results once the load is in the air. The yellow structures behind the Ironworkers are safety devices that will catch the worker if he should slip and fall.
Click on the image to enlarge it.
In the photo above you can better see the massive hook that is clamped onto the flange of the beam for the pick. The body of the device rests on the beam and two massive jaws are then lowered and secured to the flange.
Click on the image to enlarge it.
Hand signals are one of the main ways that Ironworkers communicate with the crane Operator. In this image he is directing the crane Operator to move the lifting hook to the proper location for clamping it to the beam.
All of the images in this post are three frame brackets sets of +2, 0 and -2 EV exposures that have been merged in NIK HDR Efex Pro 2 to create HDR images. I used the Balanced preset and then adjusted the Detail slider to Accentuated and the Drama slider to Deep before returning the merged file to Aperture 3 for final adjustments of the shadows, highlights, contrast, detail, color channels and sharpening.
HDR Image of 127 Feet Tall Caisson
Click on the image to enlarge it in another window.
Last Wednesday the Ironworkers placed a 12 foot diameter, 127 foot tall caisson in the pier near the Kentucky shore. It weighed over 170,000 pounds and was going in one of the deepest piers of the project. Watching them lift it from a horizontal position into a vertical position was amazing. It took two cranes to do it and the coordination required was incredible.
This HDR image is from a three frame handheld bracket set consisting of +2, 0 and -2 EV exposures. I took the three frames into NIK HDR Efex Pro 2 where I merged them and applied the Balanced preset. While there I set the Detail slider to accentuated and the Drama slider to deep. In order to suppress some serious halos that were showing up along the vertical elements in the sky I reduced the Method strength slider until the halos were gone. I then took the merged file back into Aperture 3 for final adjustments to colors, sharpening and contrast.
Rigging for the Caisson Pick
Click on the image to enlarge it in another window.
These Ironworkers are setting the rigging to pick this caisson and right it so that it can be lowered into the casing for final placement. To lift it two cranes must coordinate their actions so that the main crane can upright the assembly and transfer it from the barge to the pier casing. Photo Tip: Having the men in the photo helps give scale to the size of the structure.
Once more this is a three bracket set of exposures using -2, 0 and +2 EV to capture the broad dynamic range between the sky and the foreground I encountered. This is one of the most important reasons to learn and use HDR techniques so that in a situation like this there is a reasonable chance that there will be enough data to create a good image after merging the exposures.
I used NIK HDR Efex Pro 2 and Aperture 3 to merge and process the image.
Click on the image to enlarge it in another window.
This second image is not an HDR image. There was too much movement of the cables and hooks, between frames in the bracket set; for the anti ghosting to handle in NIK HDR Efex Pro 2. I decided to take the normal (0 EV) exposure into Topaz Clarity to see how well it would do with the wide dynamic range. All in all I am fairly pleased with the way that I was able to bring out some shadow detail and still hold the sky detail using a single exposure. I know some folks like to take the normal exposure and change the exposure value in subsequent copies for a faux HDR look but I don’t go that route since there isn’t any additional data captured as there is when a bracket set is used.
