Biography

 

Although a Latin and Greek scholar, who failed the Polytechnique examination in 1869, he gained entry in 1870 and joined the Ponts et Chaussées engineering corps in 1875. His first position, in Alençon, gave a foretaste of his future specialisation, since he worked on railway construction:the Fougères railway in Vire, and then the Alençon railway in Domfront.In 1881, his left arm was amputated following a tragic work accident.

Assigned in February 1884 to the first district of the first section of the Eastern Railways operating authority, he was responsible for the construction of the Paris-Strasbourg railway through to Épernay.

In 1886 he was put in charge of the eighth section of the municipal public roads department in the 19th and 20th arrondissements, where he continued sewer construction in the different districts, opened Avenue de la République in the 20th arrondissement and developed the Buttes-Chaumont Park.He was also interested in the problem of transport in hilly neighbourhoods such as Belleville, which workers had to climb after their working day.This led him to design the funicular tram line, opened in 1890. In 1891, having been promoted chief engineer for special projects, he managed the construction of the Avre aqueduct from 1891 to 1893, and completed the design for the diversion of the Loing and Lunain rivers.

In 1895, with the approach of the 1900 Universal Exhibition, the Municipal Council of Paris reopened the plan for a metropolitan railway, which had been in gestation for some 40 years.Working with Edmond Huet, Bienvenüe conducted the preliminary plan for the narrow gauge electric traction network, based on the designs of Jean-Baptiste Berlier.Bienvenüe presented a final project, adopted by the Municipal Council on July 9, 1897, and the status of the Metropolitan Railway in Paris as a public interest enterprise was established by law on March 30, 1898.Work began on October 4 in the same year to be ready in time for the universal exhibition of 1900. This first line (Porte de Vincennes - Porte Maillot) was opened on July 19, 1900. Within five years, the 42 kilometres of lines 2 and 3 were completed.Adopted in 1903, the line 4 route required a tunnel under the Seine.Begun in 1904, the engineering work employed the new, so-called sinking method developed by Rénal and implemented by Chagnaud, which consists of lowering prefabricated reinforced concrete caissons vertically to form the sections of the tunnel, together with a construction method entailing freezing of the soil.The line finally went into service on January 9, 1910.

Starting in 1911, and for a period of 10 years, in addition to his other functions, Bienvenüe was director of the Public Roads, Lighting and Cleaning Department.Although aged 62 when World War I broke out, he joined up as colonel of Engineering for the Paris Rearguard Camp.After his very early demobilisation, the Prefect of the Seine continued work on the metro, still under the direction of Bienvenüe, who also took charge of the Paris Port Department from 1917. This led to the design of Gennevilliers Port, the development of Saint-Denis Canal and the widening of Canal de l’Ourcq.

In 1924, the city of Paris awarded him its Grande Médaille d’or.The decree of January 26, 1929 brought him the distinction of Grand-Croix de la Légion d’honneur.In 1932, aged 80, after several postponements, he went into a well-deserved retirement.The following year, the Council of Paris decided to name the Metro station and Place du Maine after him.

In 1987, a stamp was published in his memory.

 

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