Bordeaux gets sixth bridge, Simone Veil Bridge, formerly JJ Bosc

The French city of Bordeaux has awarded Razel-Bec a contract for construction of a new bridge across the Garonne River. The city of Bordeaux awarded Razel-Bec one of the largest urban development project in France, construction of the Simone Veil Bridge. The 550m bridge over the River Garonne will be 45m wide and lie between Bordeaux and the city of Floriac. Construction will start in September and take around 32 months. Cost will be nearly €83.9 million.
July 11, 2017 Read time: 2 mins
The proposed Simone Veil Bridge in Bordeaux (photo courtesy of OMA REM Koolhaas-Clement Blanchet Architects)

The French city of Bordeaux has awarded Razel-Bec a contract for construction of a new bridge across the Garonne River.
 
The city of Bordeaux awarded Razel-Bec one of the largest urban development project in France, construction of the Simone Veil Bridge.

The 550m bridge over the River Garonne will be 45m wide and lie between Bordeaux and the city of Floriac. Construction will start in September and take around 32 months. Cost will be nearly €83.9 million.

The consortium led by civil contractor Razel-Bec includes 217 Fayat TP for the earthworks, drainage works and roads and utilities, Sefi intrafor for the special foundations, ETPO for in-river works, Baudin Chateauneuf together with Barbot for roof-framing works.
 
The bridge, as designed by Rem Koolhaas and Clément Blanchet of OMA architecture firm, will accommodate various forms of urban mobility and “constitutes both a link and a living space”.
 
A video focusing on design of the bridge is available on the %$Linker: 2 External <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?><dictionary /> 0 0 0 oLinkExternal Facebook page of OMA Facebook page of OMA Link false http://www.facebook.com/pg/razelbecfayat/videos/?ref=page_internal false false%>.

Until Veil’s death in June, the bridge was to be called the Jean-Jacques Bosc Bridge after the prominent 19th century Bordeaux businessman and politician.

Simone Veil was a French lawyer and politician who served as minister of health under French president Valéry Giscard d'Estaing from 1993 to 1995. She was also president of the European Parliament and a member of the Constitutional Council of France.

Bordeaux has five road bridges across the Garonne. The oldest is the Pont de pierre, built in the 1820s and three modern bridges built after 1960: the Pont Saint Jean, the suspension Pont d'Aquitaine and the Pont François Mitterrand. Aquitaine and Mitterand bridges are part of the Bordeaux the ring road.

The fifth bridge, the Pont Jacques-Chaban-Delmas, was finished was opened to traffic in early 2013. It is a vertical-lift bridge with a height comparable to the Pont de pierre in closed position and to the Pont d'Aquitaine in open position.

All five road bridges, including the two highway bridges, are open to cyclists and pedestrians, as will be the Pont Simone Veil.

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