“We have met our objectives”, the Le Bras Frères company in the final stretch

Home stretch for the Meuse company Le Bras Frères on the Notre Dame construction site. The cathedral is gradually freed from the gigantic wooden arches that supported it. Great pride for the whole team.

As the bells began to ring again this Friday, November 8, 2024, less than a month before the reopening of Notre Dame de Paris, the company Le Bras Frères in the Meuse is approaching “the final stretch” of its mission, as Julien Le Bras, president of the family group, confides to us: “we feel relieved. We went through many stages, a real permanent emotional elevator that this project was. To use the image used by Philippe Jost, head of the public establishment responsible for the restoration of the cathedral, it is a hurdle race. You have to go through them one by one, focusing on each one. We just passed the last one. The finish line is here.

We are relieved that everything went well. We met our objectives. The construction site was carried out in an exemplary manner in terms of safety.” Julien Le Bras is very proud of his teams: “I salute their dedication, their involvement, their seriousness. The site owes a lot to them, but also to their family. The dedication and sacrifice taken over time can only be possible if the families agree to sacrifice weekends and leave.”

A few days ago the cathedral was freed of part of its wooden arches. They were installed five years ago for “support the flying buttresses and secure the cathedral”, weakened by the fire of 2019.

Cela by permission of “counterbalance the weight that the vault and the frame exert on the walls, by creating an equivalent thrust.“

Hangers made to measure in Lorraine, for this extraordinary project, by the company. It was also necessary to imagine and build a specific tool.a lifting beam” to achieve this feat. The elements of the hangers weigh 10 tonnes and it required precision of the order of a millimeter to position them. A whole team was put in battle order: study, manufacturing and installation of wooden hangers for all the flying buttresses.

The company's design office has “cdesigned and calculated a wooden frame which perfectly matches the pure line of each stone arch of the cathedral“.

Damien Brisson is Managing Director of the company Le Bras Frères. He supervised this part of the work: “The removal of the hangers continues. We started with the Nave, then the south side. For the north side, we will have to wait until the beginning of 2025 and we will finish with the heart.” When asked about the hardest part, he replied: “everything is difficult. Technically, this is unheard of. It is a unique work with unique dimensions. We had to adapt.”

The aftermath of Notre Dame does not frighten him, on the contrary: “we grew from this experience. We learned to handle pressure and stay humble.“And if I had to sum up this great adventure in one word for him, he would remember the word.”sharing“. “We tried to share the work on this site with the schools even if we had time constraints, because it is important to make young people want to understand the know-how that we can pass on with such a project. There is also sharing between professionals.”

There are days when there were 300 of us working together in the same place. There were days when we had to mix teams with other companies and we could have companions of carpenters and apprentice carpenters in a group. Everyone had exactly the same state of mind, the team spirit, the same desire to do well; journeymen or carpenters with a capital C.“

So, after Notre Dame, Damien Brisson is already on other adventures, castles, Beauvais Cathedral, but also a gymnasium. It’s not just heritage that can move mountains…

From July 2019 to February 2020, 28 hangers were installed under the flying buttresses of Notre-Dame de Paris. The pose was spectacular. “Installing each hanger is a renewed challenge : definitively assembled on the ground, it is attached to a lifting beam, intended to lift it in complete balance. In fact, it must be lifted perfectly straight and placed smoothly in its location. There is only a 6 meter gap between each arc, which prevents hesitation.

The hanger is erected on the concrete soles poured on the cathedral terraces to keep it straight and distribute the weight it will have to carry. Rope access technicians attached to the flying buttress placed couchis (long wooden blocks) between it and the flying buttress. This is now neutralized and no longer risks causing the vaults to collapse.”

The reopening of Notre Dame de Paris to the public is scheduled for December 8, 2024.