River Tordera, Spain | The Restoration of the Pont Trencat | Xavier Font Solà

[JVS]

Description: Restoration of a Middle Ages bridge over the River Tordera, destroyed during the Napoleonic Wars
Client: Sant Celoni Borough Council
Dates: 1997-2003
Scope: Concept Design
Structural Engineering
Site Supervision

Awards: Footbridge 2005 Awards. Joint winner category aesthetics, span up to 30 metres.
Puente de Alcantara Awards 2002-2004. Highly Commended.
Construmat 2005 Awards. Highly Commended.
Europa Nostra 2006 Awards. Medal
AR Awards for Emerging Architecture 2006. Highly Commended
Bonaplata Awards 2004. Shortlisted
Ciencia en Acción 2006 Awards. Shortlisted

The Restoration of the Pont Trencat (Broken Bridge)

In 1811, during the Napoleonic Wars, the "Pont Trencat" bridge suffered the destruction of one of its two arches, the main one. No one tried to repair it for almost one hundred and ninety years, until 1996 when people from the two villages the bridge links, Sant Celoni and Santa Maria de Palautordera, situated fifty kilometres away from Barcelona, decided to raise founds to carry out its restoration. At the beginning of 1999 we were commissioned to develop the bridge restoration project.

We first carried out archaeological works and documentary research in order to obtain the information available about the history and the construction sequence of the bridge. We found the remains of the disappeared arch as well as part of the old pavement on the left bank. It is said to be a Roman bridge since it is placed on the Roman Via Augustea (Augustus Way); however we didn't find any Roman remains. We are not sure when the existing part was constructed, but we found documents that revealed that in 1453 important changes were made. It is quite possible that the current shape, with its Gothic arch, dates from then.

Afterwards, the main issue we had to deal with was about what kind of action we should carry out. We had to choose between a reconstruction (giving the damaged monument its original shape back) and a restoration (building the monument in a totally new way, different from what it looked like before). It was a difficult decision and we knew that both options would be controversial.

Since the bridge was destroyed a long time ago, nobody knows what it really looked like before it collapsed. If we had tried to give the bridge its original shape back we would have had to invent all the information we lacked. Also, people are used to seeing its broken shape. Its name, "El Pont Trencat", means The Broken Bridge.

Following the ideas of some famous restoration theoreticians, such as the Austrian Alois Riegl (1858-1905) and the Italian Camillo Boito (1835-1914), we decided to carry out a restoration. We thought that it would be better to recover its functionality only for pedestrians by reerecting the missing part in a way that reflects the contrast between the new work and the existing remains rather than trying to make a mimetic reproduction. Thus, we proposed to restore it using modern materials and techniques. Steel, along with concrete, is the most representative structural material of our time. We chose to construct the missing part with a box girder deck, 3.36 meters wide, supported by a hollow box arch spanning 24 meters, both made in corten steel.

The work began in July 2000 and was divided in three phases: The first phase consisted of reinforcing the old part, made of stone. We also built the new in concrete. The second phase consisted of constructing the steel structure that was erected in four pieces. The arch was lifted in two pieces welded to each other in the crown. The beam was also lifted in two pieces. The third phase consisted of constructing the pavement and installing the street and monumental lighting. The bridge was opened to public in September 2003.

We think this is a proper and original use of steel, which have been chosen, not for economical or structural reasons, but for its aesthetic quality of complementing granite stone.

in http://www.bierot.net/treinf.htm