Inauguration of the Pont Gustave Flaubert on 25 September 2008. This post is for the beloved Mike Proost, I still miss you mate!
Photo: https://mapio.net/pic/p-19308553/
The Pont Gustave-Flaubert is a vertical-lift bridge over the river Seine in Rouen, Seine-Maritime, Normandy, France. Rouen City Council named the bridge after the 19th-century novelist Gustave Flaubert, who was born and died in Rouen.
Photo: @ Claude Villetaneuse
The design team, included the engineering firm Arcadis (with Michel Virlogeux as consultant) with a structural design team consisting of Bernard Gausset and Michael Moussard, architect Aymeric Zublena and Francois Gillard. The mechanical engineering was developed by Eurodim together with consultant Jean-Pierre Ghilardi. The contract for the bridge construction, without the approaching viaducts, was €60 million. It was won by Quille, a subsidiary of Bouygues Construction, in association with Eiffage and Victor Buyck Steel Construction.
Photo: J. ESTRAT / Wikimedia
The bridge is a lift bridge with a bridge span of 120 m and a total height of 86 m. The air draft (clearance) is 7 m when the deck is down, which still allows the passage of barges and smaller craft. It is 55 m above the Seine when raised. It was the tallest lift bridge in the world at that time. The total length, including the approach viaducts, is 670 m. The dual decks, each of which is 120 m long and weighs 1,300 tons is supported by four pylons (arranged in pairs) piled into the Seine riverbed. It takes twelve minutes fully to raise or lower the lift section.
Photo: https://masterok.livejournal.com/500872.html
At the top of the towers is a steel structure which supports the pulleys of the lift system on three parallel frames; the form of this is where the term ‘butterfly’ came from and these weigh 450t each. Each of the spans can be lifted independently through synchronized winches inside the supporting caissons.
Photo: https://masterok.livejournal.com/500872.html
The spans, which were designed as box beams are constructed entirely of steel to minimize the weight. Eiffel and VBSC fabricated the steel sections for the decks at their sites in France and Belgium. Decks were transported by barge to the construction site and lifted by cranes on pontoons.
About the Author:
Bruno Dursin – Managing Director at Believe in Steel. Bruno has more than 30 years of experience in promoting steel & steel solutions. His clients benefit from his extensive network within the building industry.
