Rochefort Transporter Bridge
Also known as the Pont transbordeur du Martrou.
Crosses the River Charente between Rochefort and Échillaisat, France. It is the last transporter bridge in operation in France.
Official webpage (in English) here.
Built between 1898 and 1900. Designed by Ferdinand Arnodin.
Between 1933 and 1934 modifications were carried out by Fives-Lille-Cail following the detection of incipient cracks in the lower chords of the stiffening girders (booms). A major change was the replacement of Arnodin's distinctive truss girders by plate girders.
Between 1980 and 1994, the bridge was renovated with funding from the EEC.
In 2016 major reconstruction of the transporter bridge was announced. The client was Opérateur du patrimoine et des projets immobiliers de la culture (OPPIC). Project management was by Philippe Villeneuve, chief architect of historical monuments, assisted by études Artcad. The contractor was Baudin-Chateauneuf. The 1933 plate girder beams were replaced by new girders, similar in design and construction principles to Arnodin's original. In keeping with the original work, hot riveting was used, 30,000 rivets being installed. The pylons had to be entirely scaffolded and enclosed with plastic sheeting to allow safe removal of the old toxic paint. Complications included the discovery that the existing pylons were not quite vertical. 25 tons of corroded bars on the pylons required replacement.[1].The bridge was reopened in July 2020.
See here for extensive information on the renovation process on the official website (in French).
See also Wikipedia entry.
Span between pylons 140 m
Total length of deck with brackets 175.6 m
Deck height 48.5 m
Height of the pylons 66 m