Biography

 

Born at Objat, in Corrèze, on July 13, 1879, Eugène Freyssinet attended first the Ecole polytechnique and then Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées.His first appointment up to the Great War was in Moulins, where he built a number of bridges.In 1907 he was awarded the Caméré Prize by the French Academy of Sciences for the technique of raising bridge arches on jacks, used for the first time in the construction of Prairéal-sur-Besbre Bridge (Allier).

With the coming of the War, he was mobilised as a captain in engineering at the Northern Section Military Commission, where he built both the aviation hangars at Istres and reinforced concrete cargo ships in Rouen.He nevertheless continued his civilian activities, becoming director of the Mercier, Limousin et Compagnie Enterprises, renamed in 1916:“Société Limousin et Compagnie, Procédés Freyssinet”.In his wide-ranging research he developed mobile scaffolding, arches with upper ribs and, above all, he discovered concrete creep.In the years 1921-1923, he built the Orly hangars.In the 1920s, he was involved in the construction of Albert-Louppe Bridge in Plougastel (Finistère), a structure with three identical spans of 180 m each, where he discovered the laws of gradual concrete creep.

Having an interest in prestressed concrete, he decided to quit the Limousin company to complete his research.In 1928, he filed a patent on prestressed concrete, and set up his company to manufacture wire-prestressed concrete sections.In 1935, he used prestressing to consolidate the maritime station of Le Havrewhich was threatening to settlebeyond repair.  In 1934, he met Edme Campenon, who proposed that he should develop his invention of prestressed concrete in structures built by the firm Campenon-Bernard.Here, he designed several prestressed concrete structures in Algeria between 1936 and 1939 (River Fodda water pipes, multiple arch dam at Béni Badhel, Portes de Fer dam).In 1939, he invented post-tension prestressing in a patent titled:“System for anchoring cables under tension for the construction of prestressed concrete structures”, which is a patent for parallel wire prestressing cables tensioned by special jacks and held in place by anchorage cones.

During the Second World War, he set up the Société Technique pour l’Utilisation de la Précontrainte (STUP) and later built numerous structures in France and abroad:Pont de Luzancy in 1946 (unsupported 55 m span using prefabricated voussoirs held together with prestressed cables), runways at Orly in 1947, roofed trench in Rouen in 1948, Esbly Bridge on the Marne in 1949, viaducts on the motorway from Caracas to La Guaira in Venezuela in 1951, Lourdes Underground Basilica in 1958, Pont Saint-Michel in Toulouse in 1959, Lilas reservoir in Paris in 1961, etc.

In 1952, the International Prestressed Concrete Federation was formed.Until his death, he remained intensely active:honorary chairman of the International Prestressed Concrete Federation , consultant engineer for STUP (now the Freyssinet Group) and for the Campenon-Bernard Enterprises. He was appointed honorary Inspector-General of the Ponts et Chaussées.He died on June 8, 1962.

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