Christian Menn

Christian Menn ( born March 3, 1927 in Meiringen ) is a Swiss civil engineer, emeritus professor at the ETH Zurich and bridge builder. He is a world renowned expert on aesthetically pleasing bridges and is considered the most important Swiss bridge builders of the present.

Life

His family is from Graubünden, the father Simon Menn was also a civil engineer. In Chur, Christian Menn attended the Cantonal High School until 1946. He then began the study of civil engineering at the ETH Zurich, where he graduated in 1950 with a diploma. Subsequently, he was employed by two offices in Chur and Zurich, as well as a construction company in Berne as an engineer before he up to his doctorate in 1956 as an assistant at the ETH Zurich worked with Professor Pierre Lardy of 1953. Here he gathered again at the building company Société Dumez in Paris and an engineering office in Bern practical experience before in Chur founded his own engineering firm in 1957. In the following 14 years, he designed his office with more than 100 bridges, including 80 in the Canton of Grisons. In particular, his arch bridges such as the Naninbrücke Mesocco with 112 m span in the southern slope of the San Bernardino Pass road, in the tradition of his major compatriot Robert Maillart. In 1970 Menn together with his colleagues Emch und Berger from Bern to compete for the Felsenaustrasse viaduct, a 1116 -meter-long highway bridge. The bridge has maximum spans of 144 meters and was built as a single- prestressed concrete box girder cantilever construction.

1971 was followed by a Christian Menn appointed Professor of Structural Engineering at ETH Zurich, a position he held until his retirement in 1992. During this time he designed, among other things, the spectacular 678 meter long Ganter Bridge at Simplon Pass, which has a main opening with 174 meter wingspan. Today, he works as a consulting engineer and developed bridge designs, as for the Sunnibergbrücke at the monastery, the. Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Memorial Bridge in Boston or at the time a cable-stayed bridge over the Grimsel in the Bernese Oberland He consults worldwide for bridge projects and is a jury member at national and international competitions.

Ganter in Valais

Rhine bridge Tamins

Behind Rhine bridge Crestawald

Cascellabrücke in Misox

Honors

For its versatile, internationally acclaimed life's work Christian Menn has been awarded several times. He was honored, among others, in 1982 with the Fritz Schumacher Prize and in 1990 with the Freyssinet Medal of the Fédération Internationale de la Précontrainte. In 1996 he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Stuttgart and in 2003 the German Civil price. In 2009 he received the International Award of Merit in Structural Engineering.

Structures

  • Rhine Bridge, Bad Ragaz, 1962
  • Reichenau bridge Tamins, 1963
  • Via Mala Bridge, 1966
  • Cascellabrücke, Mesocco, 1968
  • Felsenaustrasse viaduct, Bern, 1975
  • Ganter, Brig, 1980
  • Pont de Chandoline, Sion, 1989
  • Sunnibergbrücke, Klosters, 1999

Works

  • Reinforced concrete bridges, Springer- Verlag, Wien, 1990, ISBN 3-211-82115-5
Structural analysis Grimselsee Integrated Authority File
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