To celebrate the twenty years of his agency (Ingphi), and with the support of his collaborators, Philippe Menétrey has created a work presenting 64 bridges over the Rhône and its tributaries in Switzerland. The agency’s business card, gift to employees and contacts, even catalog of references, the book is above all a wonderful introduction to civil engineering and a loving tribute to a precious heritage. Finally, it is a book-manifesto. Certain bridges, explains the author, are of valuable technical interest and which deserve to be better known: the Gueuroz bridge (1931-1934), for which Alexandre Sarrasin experimented with vibrated concrete for the first time, the Chillon viaduct ( Jean-Claude Piguet, 1966-1968) with its pre-stressed cables in double curves, or the Chandoline bridge (Christian Menn, 1989-1991), which deploys a 284 m long deck which flies over the Rhône.
The Pont de l’Île in Geneva, which opens the book, was made of wood by the Celts, demolished by Julius Caesar in -58, then constantly rebuilt in different forms, up to the present day. In 1874 its deck was reinforced by François Hennebique. Since then it has been rebuilt again: the current bridge is so wide (43 m) that we no longer even suspect it… The history of this bridge, explains Philippe Menétrey, is a reflection of the problem this book addresses. ambition to answer: “There are around 400 bridges over the Rhône and its tributaries in Switzerland; they form an immense, but little-known heritage. A heritage of which we are unaware of the exceptional value in cultural terms, on the one hand, but also in economic terms. This book is therefore aimed at engineers and architects as well as political decision-makers, who must be interested in this heritage in order to invest in its maintenance. “We absolutely must avoid learning through disaster by maintaining and monitoring our works,” concludes Philippe Menétrey.
Philippe Menétrey (Ed.), Switzerland and its bridgesIngphi Press, 2024, preface by Eugen Brühwiler
—> Orders: buch [at] espazium.ch
