From the Rearview Mirror: Girders

With hundreds of blog posts in our archives, we understand if you haven’t had a chance to read them all.

However, there’s a lot of interesting content in those early posts and we don’t want you to miss out. That’s why we’re looking back and highlighting some of our favorites in a new series called, “From the Rearview Mirror.”

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Originally published on Aug. 29, 2011, the video featured in this post gives a dizzying look at a girder installation (we’ve blogged about girders a couple of times since then).

This post also refers to the reconstruction of the Mescal/J-Six Bridge, which you might remember was completed in September 2011.

Tiny camera captures bird’s eye view of girder installation

If you’ve been following along in the blog, you know that we’ve been chronicling ADOT’s reconstruction of the Mescal/J-Six bridge in southern Arizona since it was severely damaged when two semi trucks collided underneath it back in March. Completion of the fast-tracked bridge reconstruction is slated for later this month.

Here's a shot of the GoPro in action. The inset photo gives you an idea of how small the camera really is.

Last week, crews installed 35,000-50,000 pound girders and our video team wanted to explore a creative way to take you behind the scenes of what goes into placing a 25-ton piece of concrete.

To get the perfect shot, they looked to a GoPro® Hero. GoPros are tiny (1.6” x 2.4” x 1.2”, 3.3 oz) HD cameras that let photographers get some incredible shots they never would have been able to otherwise.

Conditions weren’t exactly ideal (check out our Facebook page for pictures of the tarantula and other creepy crawlers that joined their shoot and the extreme weather that loomed in the distance), but they couldn’t miss a chance to secure a GoPro to one of those massive girders! (You might want to sit down before watching this one…it may make you a little dizzy.)