24,000 times and I didn’t know

Photo By Glenn Jeffries | The local Charleston paper on the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Hugo.  

CHARLESTON, SC, UNITED STATES

12.31.2019

Story by Glenn Jeffries 

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Charleston District

I am a Sullivan’s Island resident, every weekday, I cross the Ben Sawyer Bridge to head to work at the Charleston District as it is the main connection between the barrier island I live on and the “mainland” of Charleston.

The 240-foot long, 500-ton swing span bridge crosses the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway, which the Charleston District maintains as is denoted by the Corps’ Castle prominently displayed on the roadside.

As we approached the 30th anniversary of Hurricane Hugo, a devastating Category 4 hurricane which struck the coast, I discovered one more connection to where I live and where I work. When Hugo struck at midnight on September 21, 1989, it crossed Sullivan's Island traveling at nearly 25 miles-per-hour with hurricane-force winds ranging out 140 miles from the eye and pushing a tidal surge that reached as high as 15 feet above mean sea level. There was major devastation on Sullivan’s Island, including tipping over the Ben Sawyer Bridge into the AIWW. Plus, in 1989, it was the only connection to the barrier islands north of Charleston Harbor.

I recently calculated that I have driven over that bridge approximately 24,000 times in the last 22 years, so you can imagine my surprise when I discovered that the Corps was responsible for one of the biggest efforts in our community after this major storm; putting the bridge back into place after that fearful night.

The bridge swings on its central axis to open for boat traffic which is too tall to clear the bridge. It sits on a single 18- to 20-inch bronze bearing that rests on its center support pin. During the storm, the bridge slid into the AIWW like a seesaw, with the lower end in the water and the other 110 feet up in the air. Pictures of the damaged bridge became some of the most recognizable images of the destruction wrought by the storm.

Mark Nelson, former Charleston District chief of design, volunteered to assist the South Carolina Department of Transportation to get the damaged, one million pound bridge back in use for traffic so friends and family could go home. Nelson refers to this as the most exciting, yet terrifying, project of his 30 year career.

“I was familiar with these types of bridges because I had worked on four similar ones in North Carolina,” said Nelson. “While working at the Wilmington District, I did design, repair and inspections on swing span bridges.”

The S.C. governor had to officially request the Corps’ help, but he provided a warning- “If you drop that bridge in the water, it’s yours.” Nelson immediately began working on sketches and trying to find a crane big enough to lift that much weight. There wasn’t one, but he did find a contractor in Savannah who said they could help him. Hardaway Construction was quickly awarded a contract and a brilliant plan was put into place.

Mother Nature had taken the bridge down and now it was going to help put it back into place. The idea was to lift the bridge with the tide using two barges with a crane and tugs to move it around. Nelson got busy working this plan and confirmed it could work. Working at night on a high tide, the barges used their crane to begin lifting the sunken end. The bridge came up pretty easily, gradually lifting the bridge above the center pin. The tugs pushed the barges around. The span began moving closer and closer to the center pin where it was supposed to sit and then it stopped, 12 inches short.

“I reached out and started pulling that one million pound bridge,” said Nelson. “We all wanted it to work so badly and we could not get the last foot to budge.”

With the tide beginning to change, the tugs would have to wait for another chance in twelve hours with the next high tide. This time they added a manual crank winch to the equation and it worked. Shortly after midnight, just two weeks after Hugo knocked it down, the bridge was back in place for traffic. Nelson and the contractor became the first people to ride across, but as they did Nelson saw a tug with cabin and dredging equipment headed towards the bridge. He could tell there was not going to be much clearance and held his breath as the tug began lowering all of its antennas and other equipment. The tug cleared the bridge with only six inches to spare.

“God blessed me with education, training and experience and then put an opportunity in my path,” said Nelson. “It was an honor and a privilege to be able to give back to the people of this community.”

Now as I cross that bridge daily, my smile is even bigger knowing what the Corps did during one of the biggest disasters this area has ever seen.

• Date Taken: 12.31.2019
• Date Posted: 12.31.2019 13:28
• Story ID: 357875
• Location: CHARLESTON, SC, US