“It’s a soap opera that we’ve been following for years.
So we come to see the new episode,” says Annie with a laugh, who came with her husband from Longueville-sur-Scie (Seine-Maritime) to witness the transfer from the Colbert bridge to the “Baltic” barge which will take her away this Saturday February 10, a few hundred meters there, on the Quai de Norway, before joining the Dakar course where it must be restored over 15 months with the aim of retaining as many original parts as possible.
Like her, there are dozens of Dieppois who made the trip this Friday morning to see the 840 tonnes of the structure commissioned in 1889 move gently and which, when the work is completed, will remain the last bridge hydraulic turning in operation in Europe.
Which also means it was classified as a Historic Monument in November 2020.
A project costing 19.6 million euros
“We had to wait for high tide to carry out the transfer, ensuring both the stability of the bridge which rests on multi-axle trailers allowing it to be moved, and that of the barge which uses a pump system which allows it to be moved. maintains at the same level", specifies Thierry Wolkiewiez, the French general manager of Eiffage Metal, one of the main players in this project costing 19.6 million euros.
“It’s obviously spectacular, but all the work upstream made it happen without a problem.”
The Pont Colbert transfer operations took place without any problem this Friday morning in the port of Dieppe.
/DronesSmartImages
An impression of ease welcomed by Pierre, who came to immortalize the event.
“We forget our weight.
It seems almost light even though it’s quite a piece.”
A piece of heritage that a local association has spent years defending in order to convince the public authorities, and in particular Hervé Morin, president of the region and of Ports de Normandie, not to replace it with a brand new bridge but to preserve this puddled iron structure – an ancient process for refining cast iron that has now disappeared – which is obviously reminiscent of an illustrious contemporary, the Eiffel Tower.
“But be careful, it was not Eiffel who built the bridge, it was an architect called Paul Alexandre.
But it's true that the resemblance is obvious", insists Pierre, visibly knowledgeable on the subject, and who compares the whole thing "to a large Mechanic that can be taken apart piece by piece and reassembled identically".
“It evokes our memories, our youth”
For Philippe Deiss, the general director of Ports de Normandie, this attachment “is quite incredible.
When the bridge closed in January, it was very moving to see all these people come with family or friends to keep a memory of this moment.”
He also imagines that there will be even more people when he makes his big comeback in the summer of 2025, with a dress freed from the erosion of past time, with a wider sidewalk to allow people with reduced mobility to use it, and fully illuminated.
“If we love this bridge so much, it is not only for its historical value,” analyzes a Dieppe art dealer who came as a curious person.
“It’s because we have the impression that he has always been there and that he evokes our memories, our youth, like a faithful companion present in the background.”