The Washington Construction NewsJUNE 2004PAGE B8

Freyssinet’s commitment to innovation andambitious technical developments is so revolu-tionary that its specialized skills have been usedto advance nuclear power programs in France andthe United Kingdom; relocate a 725-year oldancient Egyptian temple; facilitate oil drilling inthe icy waters off the coast of Newfoundland andthe North Sea; lift the roof off an Italian casino inCampione; create a state-of-the-art stadiums inTurkey and Wales. Moreover, its bridges spanvalleys and waterways in exotic locales thatinclude South Africa, Australia, Venezuela,Romania, and Hong Kong. However, Freyssinetis more interested in the scope of a particularproject than in its location.

An organization teeming with experience andintelligence, Freyssinet was behind many innova-tions that have marked the world of civil engi-neering including: development of the prestress-ing technique, revolutionized the state of the artfor stay cables, concrete regeneration, soil rein-forcement and improvement, and in the fields ofrepair, maintenance, strengthening and monitor-ing of structures.

Freyssinet LLC is a Chantilly, Va. - basedcivil engineering and specialty construction firmfocused on the design, construction, and long-term durability of structures ranging from bridgesand tunnels to soccer stadiums, oil platforms, andparking garages. Freyssinet, named for itsfounder and inventor of the prestressing tech-nique Eugène Freyssinet, is a subsidiary ofFrance-based Vinci Construction Group, which,consisting of approximately 2,500 companies inmore than 100 countries, is the largest construc-tion group in the world. Freyssinet itself is organ-ized into a network of 70 bases of operation inmore than 50 countries.

Three companies represent Freyssinet in theUnited States: The Reinforced Earth Company(RECO), a world leader in the mechanically sta-bilized earth market; Freyssinet LLC; and DGIMenard, a world specialist in soil improvement.

The first industrial applications of prestressingdid not occur until 1932 but the technique wasinvented in 1903. “Just after World War II,Freyssinet was more of a consulting firm focused

on design techniques and hardware, but little bylittle, as contractors needed technical assistance,Freyssinet would be onsite to assist. Finally con-tractors preferred that Freyssinet perform the spe-cialty prestressing work as a turn-key subcontrac-tor” says Baruch Gedalia, structural repairs man-ager of Freyssinet LLC. “So, instead of instruct-ing contractors how to apply prestressing tech-niques, Freyssinet began executing the workitself. And that’s how Freyssinet went fromdesigner to a mix of designer and specialty con-tractor.”

Freyssinet’s expertise in strengthening struc-tures does not end with prestressing. The firm’stechniques also include the use of stay cables,which gracefully support the longer bridgespans; conventional post-tensioning of a varietyof structures including bridges, industrial tanks,reservoirs, buildings and special structures; soilreinforcement and improvement, use of mechani-cally stabilized earth retaining walls and bridgeabutments; and repair and maintenance of exist-ing structures, utilizing Freyssinet’s wide arsenalof technologies and products in an effort to pre-serve the beauty and functionality of aging struc-tures, thus allowing future generations to enjoytheir splendor.

For example, Freyssinet Portugal (TerraArmata) installed 192 stay cables, 11,000 tons ofsteel post-tensioning cables, and large movementexpansion joints during construction of the Vascode Gama Bridge, located in the seismicallyvolatile region outside Lisbon, Portugal.Freyssinet Poland, participating in the construc-tion of the Wolin Bridge in northwestern Poland,the largest steel arch bridge in that country, used104 stay cables and 180 tons of steel to span theDziwna River.

According to Freyssinet LLC Chief OperatingOfficer Andrew Micklus, the Cooper RiverBridge in Charleston, S.C., a $550 milliondesign/build job, is the longest span cable stayedbridge in the United States. Freyssinet won a $9million subcontract to design, test and install allstay cables as well as stay cable vibration sup-pression systems. The stay cable work should becomplete by February 2005, and the bridgescheduled to open to traffic mid March 2005.

Recently Freyssinet LLC completed staycable work on the widest cable stayed bridge inthe United States, the Leonard P. Zakim BunkerHill Bridge over the Charles River in Boston,Mass. This structure was the first cable stayedbridge in the U.S. to utilize ungrouted stays, atechnology developed by Freyssinet and nowbeing adopted by nearly all current and upcomingUS cable stayed bridges.

“Using a specialist for building the specialportions of bridges and other structures is advan-tageous for the main contractor as well as theowner,” says Andre Coudret, chief executive offi-cer of Freyssinet LLC. “We think it [stay cablesand post-tensioning] is something really specialand after all, it is what holds the bridge together.What is more important than that?”

Freyssinet also has a strong presence in theWashington, D.C. metropolitan area havingworked on several projects in the region, includ-ing a number of bridge projects. According toMicklus, “We had two contracts in the SuitlandMd. area that included all post-tensioning workfor the Branch Avenue and Naylor Road Stationand Line Structures for WMATA. There werepre-cast span-by-span segmental concrete bridgesas well as more conventional cast-in-place boxgirder bridge work.” The extensions of theBranch Avenue Line won several awards for aes-thetics for its novel design, which parallels theSuitland Parkway and crosses Route 5.

Freyssinet also furnished and installed thepost-tensioning on the first and to date, the onlysegmental concrete bridge in Washington D.C.where the firm worked with Dick Enterprises onthe Whitehurst Freeway.

Another D.C.-area project was at the NationalAirport Metro station, where Freyssinet strength-ened the structures to allow the addition ofcanopies at the station. “We had an approximate$400,000 subcontract to provide external post-

tensioning and strengthen the girders,” saysMicklus.

Freyssinet LLC has employed similarly inno-vative techniques in replacing or restoring struc-tures around Washington, D.C. According toMicklus, “We recently completed a job for Metroat its Shady Grove maintenance station. Wejacked up the bridges and replaced the bearings,utilizing an alternative scheme for raising thesuperstructure. Freyssinet’s alternate jackingscheme ultimately saved time, money and hadvirtually no environmental impact on a localstream, which would have been disturbed, basedhad the original jacking scheme shown in the biddocuments been used. We also replaced damagedexpansion joints with Freyssinet’s CIPEC JointSystem and provided up to a 5 Year warranty. Thewarranty was not a contractual requirement butoffered by Freyssinet as evidence of our confi-dence in our products.”

Freyssinet has just launched the re-introduc-tion of its CIPEC line expansion joints in the U.S.market and is optimistic the joints will wellreceived.

A long and decorated history of research anddevelopment is what distinguishes Freyssinetfrom its competition and allows the company toset, rather than follow the standards within thecivil engineering and construction industries. Inkeeping with its mission of constant innovation,the Freyssinet Group allocated €4.35 million($5.2 million USD) to research and developmentlast year alone.

For Gedalia, the formula for success is clear,“When you bring to the table good ideas, clientssee them and begin to have more confidence inthe company and overall quality of the structure.And, next time, instead of engineering all thedetails of the structure, they may leave specialtyportions for specialty contractors such asFreyssinet.”

Perhaps the only thing more impressive thanFreyssinet LLC’s innovative designs or state-of-the-art technology and construction, is the com-pany’s safety record. Despite being a leader inone of the most dangerous fields within the con-struction industry, the company has had only oneminor accident and no lost time since 2000.

When pressed to pin down that one thing thatmakes Freyssinet LLC unique, Andre Coudretanswers, “All our work is based on invention.

At Freyssinet, one out of every three people inthe company is an engineer. Every time we repairsomething we try to improve by coming up withan inventive solution. For us, the cost savings isnot in doing something more quickly or cuttingcorners, the cost-savings is in developing aninventive or alternative solution that is more suit-ed to the particular situation. Then, it is a win-win game: We can do the job with an inventivesolution, the client can save time and/or moneyand has a final product as good and in many casesbetter than originally anticipated.”

Gedalia adds, “We want people to associateFreyssinet with effective problem solving. Wewant to use our investment in highly skilledfield crews to do things better; implement value-engineering; find alternative designs to make usas competitive as possible.”

Micklus is hopeful that the company’s uniquebusiness strategy, intelligent staff of engineers,and creative designs will set Freyssinet apartfrom its competition.

Gedalia anticipates primary contractors con-tinue to see Freyssinet LLC as valuable contribu-tors on challenging projects: “We are not justbuilders; we are complete problem-solvers. Weare building our market by bringing some intel-lectual added value to the project by implement-ing innovative solutions,”

Freyssinet has experience, intelligence, aproven track record, and the full technical supportof the largest construction organizations in theworld; it is no stretch of the imagination tobelieve that the success enjoyed thus far byFreyssinet is just the tip of the iceberg for thisrising star. For more information, visit FreyssinetLLC online at www.freyssinet.com or phone(703) 378-2500.

FREYSSINET: A Worldwide Player in Civil EngineeringJEFF ROBERTS

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