Michel Virlogeux

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Michel Virlogeux (2011)

Michel Virlogeux (* 7. July 1946 in La Fleche , Sarthe department in the region of Pays de la Loire ) is a French bridge engineer , the outside experts mainly by the de Viaduc Millau became known that he together with the architect Sir Norman Foster designed.

Life

After completing his schooling at the Prytanée national militaire of La Flèche, one of the French military high schools , he graduated from the École polytechnique in 1967 and then from the École nationale des ponts et chaussées in 1970 .

In the period from 1970 to 1973 he was in Tunisia in the road construction business. During this time he did his doctorate at the Université Pierre-et-Marie-Curie ( Paris 6 ) as Docteur-Ingénieur , which he was awarded in 1973. In January 1974, he became area manager in the Large Concrete Bridges department of the Service d'études techniques des routes et autoroutes (SETRA) , a state building planning, advisory and monitoring institution. In addition, from 1975 to 1994 he gave lectures on the planning of bridges at the École Spéciale des Travaux Publics . From 1977 to 1994 he was also professor of statics at the École nationale des ponts et chaussées. In 1980 he became head of the concrete bridge department at SETRA and in 1987 head of the large bridges department (steel and concrete). In the twenty years he designed well over a hundred bridges, mainly in France. He and his team also worked as a test engineer on a number of other bridges. He contributed to the technical development in the field of prestressed concrete with external tendons, cable-stayed bridges and composite materials .

In February 1995 he left the civil service and has been working as a freelance engineer ever since.

Since 2008 he has been professor of bridge planning and construction at the École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées. He was and is a member or president of various professional and professional associations.

Buildings (excerpt)

Some of the numerous bridges designed by Virlogeux are those over the Rhine canal near Ottmarsheim , over the Loir in La Flèche, over the Somme in Abbeville , the cable-stayed bridge over the Rhône in Seyssel , the Pont de l'île de Ré , the Auray bridge , the Pont Chateaubriand over the Rance , the Pont du Morbihan over the Vilaine at La Roche-Bernard , the Pont de Bourgogne (cable-stayed bridge) in Chalon-sur-Saône , the Kärkinen cable-stayed bridge near Korpilahti , Finland and above all the Pont de Normandie , at that time the largest cable-stayed bridge in the world, as well as the preliminary design for the Viaduc de Millau.

As a freelance engineer, he designed the concept for the TGV viaducts in Avignon and later worked for their construction supervision. In Portugal he was head of the test engineers at the Ponte Vasco da Gama near Lisbon . He made the preliminary draft of the Viaduc de Verrières north of the Viaduc de Millau, prepared the final planning for the Viaduc de Millau together with Sir Norman Foster and advised the Eiffage company on its construction . He developed the concept of the continuous and completely suspended carriageway of the Rio-Antirrio Bridge in Greece. He was brought in as an expert to replace the cables of the Pont de Tancarville across the Seine and to investigate vibrations in the ropes of the Saint-Nazaire bridge . He advised the Japan Highway Public Corporation on the construction of bridges over the Ibi and Kiso . He was involved in the planning of the Stonecutters Bridge in Hong Kong and the Sutong Bridge in China, the world's largest cable-stayed bridge. The Pont de Térénez in Brittany was designed by him, as was the Pont Jacques Chaban-Delmas over the Garonne in Bordeaux , which was completed in 2013 . The conception of the Yavuz Sultan Selim Bridge (third Bosphorus Bridge) goes back to him.

Pont de Normandie

honors and awards

Michel Virlogeux has received numerous honors and awards. In 1983 he was awarded the IABSE Prize of the International Association for Bridge and Structural Engineering , of which he has been a member since 1974. In 1996 he received the gold medal of the Institution of Structural Engineers , in 1999 (first) the Fritz Leonhardt Prize of the Baden-Württemberg Chamber of Engineers , in 2003 the International Award of Merit in Structural Engineering of the IABSE, in 2005 the gold medal of the Institution of Civil Engineers , 2006 the Freyssinet Medal of the Fédération internationale du béton and in 2007 the Prix Albert-Caquot of the Association Française de Génie Civil. He was from the 2009 Loughborough University of Doctor Honoris Causa in Technology awarded.

In 1989 he was made a knight of the Ordre national du Mérite , in 2000 an officer and in November 2005 a knight of the Legion of Honor .

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Virlogeux, Michel
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French bridge construction engineer
DATE OF BIRTH July 7, 1946
PLACE OF BIRTH La Flèche