Tag: bridges

Frank Lobody Repairing A Drill Shaft at the Ohio River Bridges Project

Posted on by Nick Roberts
Frank Lobody, Mechanic, International Union of Operating Engineers repairing a drill shaft for the BG-40 Drilling Machine. #1
Frank Lobody, Mechanic, International Union of Operating Engineers repairing a drill shaft for the BG-40 Drilling Machine at the Ohio River Bridges Project in Louisville, Kentucky May 2014

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Today’s images are of Frank Lobody, a mechanic for Walsh Construction, who travels from job site to job site throughout the US to handle heavy equipment repairs. Frank is a member of the International Union of Operating Engineers, Local 150 in Porter, Indiana. When I met Frank he was repairing a drill shaft for the BG-40 Drilling Machine being used in Louisville to drill into the bedrock for the bridge piers on the Ohio River Bridges Project.

Frank Lobody, Mechanic, International Union of Operating Engineers repairing a drill shaft for the BG-40 Drilling Machine. #2
Frank Lobody, Mechanic, International Union of Operating Engineers welding on a drill shaft for the BG-40 Drilling Machine. 

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The bedrock on the Ohio River Bridges Project is very hard and sometimes the drill shaft breaks under the load of trying to drill over 30 feet into it. Once the bridge pier casings are placed through the soil down to the bedrock it is necessary to drill a socket 30 feet into rock to anchor the piers. On the Kentucky side of the river that means drilling almost 150 feet from the surface to the bottom of the socket.

Frank Lobody, Mechanic, International Union of Operating Engineers, Local 150, Porter, Indiana
Frank Lobody, Mechanic, International Union of Operating Engineers, Local 150, Porter, Indiana

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All three of these HDR images were processed from a three frame bracket set of +2, 0 and -2 EV exposures using NIK HDR Efex Pro 2 and Aperture 3 software.

 

Viewing the Ohio River Bridges Project from the Tower Crane on Pier Four

Posted on by Nick Roberts

Several photographs from inside the mast of the tower crane on the Ohio River Bridges Project in Louisville, Kentucky being built by Walsh Construction

The Surveyor… William Moylan

Posted on by Nick Roberts
A Surveyor and a Carpenter discuss their next move while setting up forms on a pier near River Road in Jeffersonville, Indiana.
A Surveyor and a Carpenter discuss their next move while setting up forms on a pier near River Road in Jeffersonville, Indiana.

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The Surveyor in this image is William Moylan. I met William last year while he was surveying the placement of a caisson in pier 6 during it’s installation. I shot some photos of him that morning and ultimately chose one for a blog post. William saw the photo and thanked me for sharing it with the world. At the time he said to me that no one ever takes pictures of the surveyor. Later as we got to know each other he told me that his Mom in Ireland was able to see what he did for a living and the job he was working on because of that photo.

I was waiting for the crew boat yesterday when I saw William and a Carpenter working together. I liked the angle that I had and started shooting them discussing the task they were both working on. In this image they are making plans for William to ride up in the aerial lift to check the platform being placed for a hammerhead form that the carpenters are building on pier 8.

A Carpenter in aerial lift installing and leveling the floor for a hammerhead form on pier 8.
A Carpenter in an aerial lift installing and leveling the floor for a hammerhead form on pier 8.

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In this image you can see the floor of the hammerhead form that William and the Carpenter are leveling. William has climbed out onto the form floor with his measuring equipment and the Carpenter is moving into place underneath the form to make leveling adjustments.

Both of these images are three frame bracket sets of +2, 0 and -2 EV exposures that have been merged in NIK HDR Efex Pro 2 and finished in Aperture 3. For the top image I had to sue 100% anti-ghosting to eliminate the ghosting of the figures. In the second image I was able to get by with only 60% anti-ghosting. My advice regarding anti-ghosting is to strive for the lowest amount you can use in order to minimize halos and still achieve a reasonable final result.

Climbing Up Inside The Tower Crane on Pier Four of The Ohio River Bridges Project

Posted on by Nick Roberts
Looking into Indiana from inside the tower of the Tower Crane on Pier 4.
Looking into Indiana from inside the tower of the Tower Crane on Pier Four.

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Last week I was cleared by the safety manager to enter and climb the tower crane that has been installed on pier four of the Ohio River Bridges Project. The tower crane is approximately 100 feet tall now and will eventually be extended up to around 200 feet in order to build the bridge towers for the northern tower of the downtown span. Each section of the crane tower is ten feet tall and affords me a place to stand and shoot from as I climb up. I only went up six sections but with the additional height of the tower base I was able to shoot from around eighty feet above the river. The view of the project from there is amazing and I can’t wait to climb higher the next time I’m out there. Eventually I will be able to climb all the way up to the crane itself and see the project as the crane operator sees it.

A view of the eastern tower structure of the Bridge Tower at Pier 4 on the Ohio River Bridges Project Downtown Span.
A view of the eastern tower structure of the Bridge Tower at Pier Four on the Ohio River Bridges Project Downtown Span.

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In this second image you can see the base of the eastern leg of the northern bridge tower and the shadow of the tower crane. I think I was around forty feet above the base but I’m not sure exactly which level I was on when I shot this image. The river was pretty muddy from the heavy rains that went through upstream from Louisville a few days earlier. The brown shapes on the water are driftwood branches and logs that are swept into the river whenever the river rises.

Not much more to say about these images except that they are both HDR shot handheld in a three frame bracket set of +2, 0 and -2 EV exposures. They were merged in NIK HDR Efex Pro 2 and finished in Aperture 3.

HDR Image of 127 Feet Tall Caisson

Posted on by Nick Roberts
This caisson is 127 feet tall and weighs over 170,000 pounds.
This caisson is 127 feet tall and weighs over 170,000 pounds.

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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.