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Pier (bridge structure)
The pier of a bridge is an intermediate support that holds the deck of the structure. It is a massive and permanent support, as opposed to the shoring, which is lighter and provides temporary support.
Until the advent of concrete and the use of cast iron and then steel, bridges were made of masonry. Roman bridges were sturdy, semicircular, and rested on thick piers, with a width equal to about half the span of the vault.
It was only from 1750, with Jean-Rodolphe Perronet, that the thickness of the piers could be reduced. While it was considered an absolute rule to give them a thickness equal to one-fifth of the span, Perronet proposed and succeeded in having thicknesses equal to one-tenth of the span and rises varying between one-fifth and one-seventh accepted. These reductions significantly reduced the obstacle to water flow created by the structure. With a height of 92 meters, the piers of the Fades viaduct in France, inaugurated on 10 October 1909, are the tallest traditional masonry piers ever built.
Considerable progress was then made with the invention of modern natural cement discovered in 1791 by James Parker in England and especially through the work of Louis Vicat in France (1813–1818) who laid the foundations of the hydraulic binders industry and thus of concrete. The alliance with steel gave birth to reinforced concrete, allowing the construction of increasingly daring and economical structures. Paul Séjourné would be the last great theorist of masonry bridges, and his methods and formulas for calculating piers remain relevant today.
Piers then became more slender and taller. As early as 1937, considerable height was reached with the Golden Gate Bridge in the United States, which has pylons 230 meters tall.
A further leap forward occurred with the emergence of two new technologies: pre-stressed concrete developed by Eugène Freyssinet in 1928 and high-performance concrete in the 1980s. The combination of the two allowed for the construction of very tall piers.
In masonry bridge piers, there is a resistant part and a filling part:
The dimensions of the supports result from the consideration of four criteria: stability against overturning, compression resistance of the support masonry, permissible pressure on the ground, and aesthetics.
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Pier (bridge structure)
The pier of a bridge is an intermediate support that holds the deck of the structure. It is a massive and permanent support, as opposed to the shoring, which is lighter and provides temporary support.
Until the advent of concrete and the use of cast iron and then steel, bridges were made of masonry. Roman bridges were sturdy, semicircular, and rested on thick piers, with a width equal to about half the span of the vault.
It was only from 1750, with Jean-Rodolphe Perronet, that the thickness of the piers could be reduced. While it was considered an absolute rule to give them a thickness equal to one-fifth of the span, Perronet proposed and succeeded in having thicknesses equal to one-tenth of the span and rises varying between one-fifth and one-seventh accepted. These reductions significantly reduced the obstacle to water flow created by the structure. With a height of 92 meters, the piers of the Fades viaduct in France, inaugurated on 10 October 1909, are the tallest traditional masonry piers ever built.
Considerable progress was then made with the invention of modern natural cement discovered in 1791 by James Parker in England and especially through the work of Louis Vicat in France (1813–1818) who laid the foundations of the hydraulic binders industry and thus of concrete. The alliance with steel gave birth to reinforced concrete, allowing the construction of increasingly daring and economical structures. Paul Séjourné would be the last great theorist of masonry bridges, and his methods and formulas for calculating piers remain relevant today.
Piers then became more slender and taller. As early as 1937, considerable height was reached with the Golden Gate Bridge in the United States, which has pylons 230 meters tall.
A further leap forward occurred with the emergence of two new technologies: pre-stressed concrete developed by Eugène Freyssinet in 1928 and high-performance concrete in the 1980s. The combination of the two allowed for the construction of very tall piers.
In masonry bridge piers, there is a resistant part and a filling part:
The dimensions of the supports result from the consideration of four criteria: stability against overturning, compression resistance of the support masonry, permissible pressure on the ground, and aesthetics.