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on first arriving in France - driving
France is not England
Cathedrals in France
Futuroscope
Vulcania
the French umbrella &
Aurillac
roundabout art of
Les Landes
50 years old:
Citroën DS
the Citroën 2CV:
a French motoring icon
Grand Palais, Paris
Motorway Aires
Marianne - a French national symbol, with French definitive stamps
the calendar of the French
Revolution
le pique-nique
Hermès scarves
bastide towns
mardi
gras! carnival in Basque country
what
a hair cut! m & french pop/rock
country life in France: the poultry
fair
the greatest show on Earth - the Tour
de France
short biography of Pierre
(Peter) Abelard
viaduct de Millau
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The Pont Gustave Flaubert being raised
for the first time, April 2006.
Image credit: Pierre
Albertini
the
sixth bridge
Rouen is France’s largest
river port, as well as being one of its largest seaports, being 121 km
from the open sea. The city is sited on both sides of a large loop of
the River Seine, which snakes in wide loops on its way through the region
of Haute-Normandie on its way to the English Channel (la Manche).
A new bridge was needed in Rouen to allow traffic coming
from the A150 and A151 to the north-east of Rouen, to reach the port zone
to the west of Rouen and the A13 autoroute to the city’s south,
without having to go through the city centre. The bridge location chosen
ensures that it is the last crossing before the river flows to the open
sea. The bridge serves a similar purpose to that of the venerable Tower
Bridge in London: providing a visit break between port and city.
The tall ship, The Belem, passing under the Pont
Gustave Flaubert in April 2007.
Image credit: Pierre
Albertini
Several designs for the bridge were considered, but only
one resolved the constraint that large (or tall) vessels should continue
to be able to approach the next bridge along towards central Rouen, the
Pont Guillaume le Conquérant - William the Conqueror
Bridge. Every five years, Rouen is host to one of the largest meetings
in the world, the Armada, of the biggest and most beautiful tall ships
- multi-masted sailing vessels. A bridge was required that would allow
these magnificent ships to still be able to reach the Quays [les quais]
alongside the Seine at Rouen. The new bridge design would also enable
full-size cruise liners to approach Rouen more closely. The location would
also provide a symbolic ‘door’ between the city and its port.
The chosen design - a rising, or vertical lift, bridge - will be the largest
bridge of its type in Europe. The Pont Gustave Flaubert [Gustave Flaubert
Bridge] is due to open to traffic at the start of 2008. The bridge’s
name was chosen after a poll of Rouen inhabitants.
In this vertical lift bridge, the twin roadways are raised
and lowered by heavy steel cables that run over pulleys on the ‘butterfly’
pulley heads that rest at the top of two sets of twin supporting pylons.
Pont
Gustave Flaubert, Rouen
At the end of 2006, after polling Rouen inhabitants [who
are called Rouennais], a name was decided for the sixth bridge at Rouen.
The sixth bridge became the Gustave Flaubert Bridge. The actual vote percentages
were
- Pont Gustave Flaubert 40 %
- Pont de Rouen 36 %
- Pont Cavelier de la Salle 24 %
Gustave Flaubert was born at Rouen in December 1821. He
was a writer, his first novel Madame Bovary,
published in 1857, is probably his best known work. He was known for his
particular attention to detail and his quest for chosing le mot juste
- the right word.
the
bridges of Rouen
From inland, the direction of Paris, going towards the English
Channel:
- Pont Mathilde - Mathilde Bridge, 1979. 585 metres long, it passes
over the Lacroix Island;
- Pont Pierre-Corneille - Pierre Corneille Bridge, 1952;
- Pont Boieldieu - Boieldieu Bridge, opened in 1955. The 19th
century version was painted 16 times by the artist Pissarro, following
Monet’s idea for painting
Rouen cathedral and other subjects - in many versions, at different
times of day, and in different weather and light conditions.
- Pont Jeanne d’Arc - Joan of Arc Bridge, 1956;
- Pont Guillaume le Conquérant - William the Conqueror Bridge,
1970;
- Pont Gustave-Flaubert, rising bridge, under construction.
There is also a railway bridge, the Viaduc d’Eauplet, also called
Pont aux Anglais - Eauplet Viaduct/English Bridge, a little further upstream.
The transporter bridge at Rouen,opened in 1898
and destroyed on 9 June 1940.[French: pont transbordeur.]
The nacelle, or gondola, can be seen just above
the water, beyond the steam ship and towards the left of the picture.
All of the completed bridges have been built (or re-built) since the
end of the Second
World War. The Boieldieu bridge, a transporter,
or suspended car, bridge and the Viaduc d’Eauplet were destroyed
by the French in 1940 in their attempts to slow the invading German troops.
Later, Rouen was served by several Bailey bridges
until the replacements could be built.
Boieldieu Bridge, with Rouen cathedral beyond. This Boieldieu Bridge was destroyed
in 1940.
[Note: Paris has 35 bridges!]
Structural statistics
- Late 2007/Early 2008 : Opening of bridge to traffic
- 15 April 2007 : bridge first raised for water traffic
- June 2004 : Construction work started
- Architects : François Gillard; Aymeric Zublena, architect of
Stade de France and Istanbul Olympic Stadium
- Design engineer: Michel Virlogueux, architect of Pont de Normandie,
Millau viaduct,
Vasco de Gama bridge in Lisbon
- Structural conception : Bernard Gausset, Michel Moussard
- Mechanical engineer : Jean-Pierre Ghilardi, Eurodim
- Civil engineers : Eiffage Construction
- Metal construction : Eiffel Construction Metallique and Victor Buyck
Steel Construction N.V.
- Foundations : Presspali France
- 86 m : Height at top of pylons
- 7 m : Height of roadway over the Seine when lowered (sufficient to
allow barges)
- 55 m : Height of roadway over the Seine when raised
- 670 m : Total length of roadway
- 116 m : Length of mobile section
- 2600 tons : load capacity
- 50, 000 vehicles: estimated annual traffic
- 30 times : predicted average number of times roadway will be raised
every year
- 12 minutes : time to raise roadway
- 450 tonnes : Weight of ‘butterfly’ pulley head
- 66 m : height of ‘butterfly’ pulley head
- 1200 tonnes : weight of each roadway. Counter-balances within the
pylons reduces the load lifted to only 350 tonnes.
- concrete and metal: construction materials
- 60 million euro : cost of bridge
- 137 million euro : total project cost (includes approach roads)
- Financing is shared -
state: 27.5%; region: 27.5%; department (Seine Maritime): 25%; Rouen
agglomeration: 10%
end
notes
- The name of the city of Rouen started life
as Ratuma or Ratumacos, its Celtic name. This was modified by the Romans
into Rotomagus. Then further changed into Rodomum by writers of medieval
Latin. The modern city name is a corruption of Rodomum.
-
Transporter bridge
- This type of bridge is also known as a suspended car bridge, or
ferry bridge, or aerial transfer bridge, the French term is
un pont transbordeur. Such a bridge has two tall metal pylons
with a horizontal travelway fixed high above the river. A gondola
is suspended from an electric shuttle that runs along the travelway,
providing transport across the river, while still allowing sailing
ship traffic. I am aware of at least twenty-one transporter bridges
built around the world, six being in France [Bordeaux, Brest, Marseille,
Nantes, Rochefort, Rouen] and five in the UK.
Eight transporter bridges are still used today, though the one at
Duluth, Minnesota in the USA, has been converted to a lift bridge.
Functioning transporter bridges include the Rochefort-Martrou Transporter
Bridge at Rochefort, Charente-Maritime in France, Newport and Middlesborough
in the United Kingdom, and two in Germany - at Rendsburg and Osten
(Oste).
The two US transporter bridges no longer exist (well one does, but
as an airial lift bridge). The first such bridge ever built, in
Spain in 1893, still functions at Portugalete near Bilboa.
-
- Bailey bridges are prefabricated metal bridges
invented and developed during the 2nd World War by English engineer,
Donald Bailey (1901-1985). The parts are transported and assembled in
place, more sections being added if a wider water course has to be bridged.
In Normandy, about 1,000 Bailey bridges were built, mostly in conjunction
with the Allied D-Day invasion.
“[...] no part was heavier than a 6 man load so small teams could
carry on building a bridge even under air attack and heavy gunfire.
Crucial time was saved by having the panels assembled on rollers. The
first part or nose was put together with the decking or roadway omitted.
The bridge proper was built on this nose and the whole was moved forward
on rollers as the panels were assembled. The Bailey bridge was actually
crossing the gap as it was being built.” [Quoted from Stockport
Libraries.]
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert, 1821-1880
$8.76
[amazon.com], 2005
£3.19
[amazon.co.uk], 2004
- paperback
ISBN-10: 0192840398
ISBN-13: 978-0192840394
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