Lot d'Agrès bridge

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Coordinates: 44 ° 36 ′ 45 ″  N , 2 ° 15 ′ 22 ″  E

Lot d'Agrès bridge
BW
Convicted D 963
Crossing of Lot
place Port d'Agrès, municipality of Saint-Parthem
overall length 91 m
width approx. 6 m
Number of openings a
Longest span 85 m
completion 1836, 1925, 1948
location
Lot Bridge Port d'Agrès (Occitania)
Lot d'Agrès bridge

The Lot Bridge Port d'Agrès spans the Lot near the village of Port d'Agrès in the west of the municipality of Saint-Parthem in the Aveyron department in the French region of Occitania (before 2016 Midi-Pyrénées ). It leads the route départementale  D963 at a height of 9 m over the river and its steep banks.

Suspension Bridge (1836)

The first bridge at this point was a suspension bridge , which a Mr. Belinac was commissioned to build in 1836. It already had the span of 90 m, which was necessary to cross the cut river. The swaying construction was repaired several times over the next few decades until it was finally no longer able to cope with traffic in 1925.

First concrete arch bridge (1925)

In 1924, Entreprises Boussiron received the order for a concrete bridge, which they erected in 1925 in less than 10 months.

The bridge was 91.2 m long, 5.85 m wide and crossed the river at a height of 9 m.

Its two reinforced concrete arches had a span of 85.3 m; their abutments were arranged under the deck girder about halfway above the river. The arches had two joints under the roadway girder and a transom joint on one side , while on the other side they were firmly connected to the abutment. The arches were still 64.40 m wide and 7.70 m high above the girder and stiffened by a wind bracing made of two cross girders.

The carriageway slab was interrupted above the three arch joints by transition structures that were still self-constructed at the time . Its long middle section was monolithically connected to the two arches, the outer sections were elevated on the arches. Between the arches and the carriageway slab, 20 cm thick reinforced concrete bars were arranged at an angle that they formed a knot at the top and bottom in the arch or in the carriageway slab. The arches and the deck formed a tied arch bridge , which was reinforced by the inclined bars acting as a framework .

Towards the end of the Second World War , the bridge was blown up on August 11, 1944 by an overzealous Scottish member of the Resistance in order to hinder the withdrawal of a unit of the Wehrmacht , which took a different route.

Second concrete arch bridge (1948)

As soon as possible after the end of the war, Entreprises Boussiron replaced the blown bridge with a new concrete arch bridge. The abutments and the road connections of the old bridge could be reused. The new bridge therefore had largely the same dimensions as the old one, although the concrete arches were a little stronger and the roadway a little wider than before. The complex construction of the previous bridge has been simplified. The bridge now has clamped reinforced concrete arches, vertical suspension bars also made of reinforced concrete and a deck slab with only one expansion joint in the middle of the bridge.

It is not clear from the sources who designed the two bridges. The first could have been edited by the young Nicolas Esquillan . After he had been the technical director of Entreprises Boussiron since 1941 , the second bridge was definitely built under his responsibility.

literature

  • Ch. Dantin: Pont-route en béton armé, sur le Lot, à Port-d'Agrès (Aveyron). In: Le Génie Civil, February 18, 1928, p. 157, digitized on Gallica

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Le Port d'Agrès on c.barret3.free.fr
  2. ^ Pont détruit dans le lit du Lot. Pont de Port d'Agrès après le dynamitage le 11 août 1944 par les maquisards. Photo of the blown bridge