Dialma Jakob Bänziger

Dialma Jakob Bänziger 1999

Dialma Jakob Bänziger (born September 14, 1927 in Vnà , Lower Engadin ) is a Swiss civil engineer and bridge builder .

Life

Bänziger grew up in the Grisons Puschlav , in the St. Gallen Rhine Valley and in the Principality of Liechtenstein . The many places where he lived during his youth resulted from his father's job as a Swiss border guard . Then Bänziger attended the Protestant Middle School Schiers , which he graduated with the Matura. He then began studying civil engineering at the ETH Zurich , which he completed in 1951 with the thesis The San Bernardino GR power plant .

He found his first job as a civil engineer at Locher & Cie AG Zurich . After planning the project, he became site manager for the Sambuco dam in the canton of Ticino . In 1955 he moved to the engineering office of Hans Eichenberger in Zurich. There he became project manager for the Weinland Bridge in Andelfingen , a pioneering work in prestressed concrete construction . In 1958 he moved to the Swiss Federal Railways in the bridge construction section in Zurich, where he got to know the client side .

In 1959 he founded his own engineering office together with Edy Toscano. After separating from Toscano in 1962, he became the sole owner and expanded the company at various locations. In nine branches a total of 80 employees worked in three collective companies , whereby he suitably integrated younger partners. The projects worked on were mainly in Eastern Switzerland including Graubünden and in the Swiss Central Plateau.

Bänziger's company was involved in the construction of many important bridges, and major technical innovations were always introduced. Until the handover to his successors at Bänziger Partner AG in 2004, Dialma Bänziger and his company were responsible for around 500 completed bridge projects as project authors and site managers, respectively. He described 25 selected bridge structures in detail in his autobiography . The afterword was written by the famous bridge planner Christian Menn .

Bänziger has been married to Lilia Adamina, a Ticino from Orselina , since 1954 . He has been a member of the Swiss Alpine Club (SAC), section Bernina , for over 50 years , and has taken part in the Engadine Ski Marathon more than 30 times . As a rider, he was an active member of the Zurich Officers' Riding Society for many years.

Honors

• Stepan Tymoshenko Prize while studying at the ETH, Zurich, 1949
• Honorary member of the Society of Former Polytechnicians (GEP, today ETH Alumni ), Sion VS, 1998
• Outstanding Structure Award, International Association for Bridge and Building Construction, Malta , 2001
• German Civil Engineering Award (together with Christian Menn), Hamburg , 2002

Buildings (selection)

• Achereggbrücke , motorway, railway and local road bridge, Stansstad , 1961–1965
• Hardturm Viaduct of the SBB, then the longest prestressed railway bridge in Europe, Zurich, 1964–1969
• Lehnen Viaduct Beckenried A2, second longest motorway bridge in Switzerland, canton NW, 1976–1980
• Sitter Viaduct , A1 motorway twin bridge , St. Gallen , 1980–1983
• Rheinbrücke Diepoldsau , Switzerland's first cable-stayed road bridge , Diepoldsau - Widnau SG, 1983–1985
• Aare valley viaduct, A3 motorway, Schinznach AG in the Brugg district , 1988–1993
• Lucerne pier (Janus Bridge), 1994–1996
• Sunnibergbrücke , Klosters GR, elegant cable-stayed bridge, 1996–1998
• Dreirosenbrücke , double-decker twin bridge , Basel , 1998–2004

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  Dreirosenbrücke over the Rhine in Basel

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  The Sunniberg Bridge from the northwest

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  Rhine bridge Diepoldsau , St. Gallen Rhine Valley

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  Beckenried Lehnen Viaduct with a view of Lake Lucerne

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  Hardturm railway viaduct near Zurich main station

Publications (selection)

• The Hardturm Viaduct of the SBB in Zurich. In: Schweizerische Bauzeitung. 85th vol., 1967, issue 33, pp. 609-614.
• The Beckenried Lehnen Viaduct. In: Concrete and steel construction. 75: 18-25 (1980).
• The Beckenried Lehnen Viaduct. Bänziger commission publisher; Baufachverlag, Zurich 1981, ISBN 3-8559h
• Cable-stayed bridge over the Rhine near Diepoldsau. In: Prestressed Concrete in Switzerland 1982-1986 . Editor: Technical Research and Advice Center of the Swiss Cement Industry, Wildegg 1986, pp. 53–56.
• Wehntalerstrasse underpass under the SBB in Zurich-Affoltern. In: Swiss engineer and architect. Vol. 106, No. 19, 1988, pp. 552-554.
• Aare valley bridge on the N3 near Schinznach-Bad. In: Swiss engineer and architect. ASK article series Modern Buildings . April 12, 1990, pp. 403-410.
• Construction Tender Competition for Two Railway Viaducts. In: Structural Engineering International. Vol. 1, No. 2, May 1, 1991, pp. 22-24.
• New pier in Lucerne. In: Communications from the Swiss Society for Soil and Rock Mechanics. Spring Meeting April 12, 1996, pp. 31-39.
• Bridge construction 1960 - 2005. Verlag Theiler Druck, Wollerau 2009, ISBN 978-3-033-02036-8 . (Autobiography)
• The fascination of bridge building - balance between design and economy . In: Franz Betschon et al. (Ed.): Engineers build Switzerland - first-hand history of technology. Verlag Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Zurich 2013, ISBN 978-3-03823-791-4 , pp. 207-218.

literature

• Christian Menn: An extraordinarily successful engineering life. Dialma Jakob Bänziger on her 75th birthday. In: Baublatt. Vol. 113 (2002), No. 73, pp. 10-12.

Web links

• Short biography on the occasion of honorary membership GEP / ETH 1998
• Summary of his autobiography 2009
• Website of Bänziger Partner AG