Around midnight, the bridge seemed settled. But the operation was to last until dawn and the resumption of rail traffic. “Tuesday, we will start welding”, explains Bulent Aydin, head of the structure and engineering structure department for the company Serue Ingénierie, project manager on the site.
A staircase to reach the quay
The bridge is taking shape but the work, costing 26 million euros, is far from over. “We are still here for a year,” said Bulent Aydin. If all goes as planned. The apron is on jacks that will have to be gradually removed. The laying of the pre-slabs, the reinforcement, the painting, the fittings and other finishes will follow. The project, led by the Syndicat mixte des transports urbains Thionville-Fensch, provides for the construction of a staircase that will provide direct access to the station platform from the bridge.
Work for this structure started in early 2022. Between 100 and 150 cuts have already been made on the SNCF network to allow its progress. These cuts must be anticipated and closely monitored “in order to ensure the integrity of the network and to restore it in complete safety”, explains Emilie Thomé, SNCF Network project manager. Saturday evening, his attention was increased tenfold. A backup night had been reserved just in case. It would have been enough for the gales to exceed 50 km/h to interrupt the maneuver.
The geopolitical context also has its impact. All the steel for this bridge over the railway tracks had to come from the port of Mariupol. The war in Ukraine changed the situation. We had to adapt, play with the calendar so as not to bend.
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