My thanks go to Mary for finding this article in the Sunday Independent on Paris’ newest bridge, Le Pont Simone de Beauvoir: http://www.sundayindependent.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=3340477
I am fond of this bridge – not a word I would ever use for a person but entirely appropriate for a graceful structure such as this. Last February I lead a group of 80 students on a three day tour of Paris’ engineering sites. This is no news to most readers of this blog as I suspect that most of you were on the trip. For the benefit of those that weren’t, the weekend was packed with an ambitious itinerary of Paris’ engineering and architectural attractions. For me, the highlight was this bridge.
Reading this article, I am sad, although not unsurprised, to see that the structural engineers on this project – Paris based RFR (www.rfr.fr) – are not once mentioned. I struggle to think of a construction project where architects have been involved and not engineers. Even the models at the end of year show at the Architect’s Association (www.aaschool.ac.uk) this year had to be checked over by a structural engineer to make sure they were safe.
When it comes to bridge design, I believe there is an important part to be played by architects but that the design should be lead by the engineering. When it comes to buildings, the engineering – the stuff what makes it stand up and not fall over when the wind blows – can be hidden away, like in the Ritz (London’s first steel-framed building) or on display for all to see like at the Pompidou centre. With bridges however, there is no hiding the engineering. The structural design is the language of the bridge from which all other things follow. It’s very hard to hide it.
I am sure that your comments will help me clarify my stance on this matter so I shall leave it there for the moment. There is more to say however on this bridge. Firstly, its structure should really referred to as a lenticular truss. Thinking of it as an arch bridge supported by a suspension bridge is helpful. Anyone who had just read that article might think that the bridge’s width was purely architectural. It should be noted however that such a long-spanned bridge is susceptable to fluttering in the wind. The bridge’s width helps to stabilise it from these wind induced oscillations.
Secondly, the bridge was not technically built in Paris, but rather on the banks of the Rhine in Germany. The enormous central span of the bridge was constructed at a German steel fabricator, and then loaded onto two enormous barges, floated up the Rhine, along the North Sea Coast down to Le Havre, under the Pont du Normandie (my favourite bridge http://www.carte-postale.com/honfleur/pontdenormandie.htm) and up the Seine to Paris where low tide had to be waited for to get the enormous section under Paris’ low arch bridges. The whole journey can be seen on the website of the guy who lead the strucutal desgin on the project, Henry Bardsley (http://www.henry-bardsley.com/).
Though it has been open for a few months now, I have yet to make a crossing. I am sure that when I do, readers of this blog will be the first to know.
Mary
You need to learn how to post some pictures! And hide your links better!
Meantime, hereis the little celebration I mentioned – I now see organised by the equivalent of the ramblers’ association. So maybe I’ll give it a miss.
Oli
yeah – I realise that the links look ungainly. I will get on to photos asap!
Rosy
Haha! Oliiiiiiiiiiiii! I am now a reader of your blog, hohoho. I shall bookmark you no less. Hurray for more nice things to do on the internet when seeking respite from the strictures of Word and “Thesis.doc”….(incidentally look up stricture on the OED as I just did – illuminating).
It’s lovely to have a forum to be part of where you talk about your great love of engineering and bridges and all that, for neophytes like myself. You have a lovely style – keep it up 🙂
Looking forward to keeping in touch with you via this blog as well as email/phone/skype/snailmail/dare I say it, eurostar (any donations gratefully received).
All love, Rosa The Reluctant Scribe, iTunes listener extraordinaire, Internet surfer supremo. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
henry bardsley
Dear Oliver ( it must be he )
our real cause for concern is the once interesting, notionaly Independent Newspaper, whose limited ranges of cultures, and limited readers have put it into an unstable downwards spiral. Le Monde is not worth so much either, but perhaps the best european newspaper remains the NYTimes.
The Rhine does have two banks, and the central vesica was fabricated on the West bank.
And then, in contrast to London, the Seine at Paris is not tidal. That is why, in some ways like Saltash, a pair of water balast barges were used for transport, not only to center the bouyancy with the weight, but to be high in the water for the trip down the channel, and low in the water to squeeze under Les Invalides Bridge, where it grazed the bottom. The dry winter had kept the river levels low.
Regards
eiffelover
Dear Henry, you are indeed correct. It is me. There is no hiding behind my pseudonym. I am glad that you found my site.
One of the main points of this blog is to share my enthusiasm for engineering with others, be they engineers or not. It simply won’t do to not get the details correct. So I thank you for your corrections which I will update on this evening’s post.
Not long now until I come out to Paris. I have under two weeks left at Expedition and then I make the move. And when I arrive, I look forward to taking my first stroll across Paris’ ‘most travelled’ bridge.
Best wishes