History of Pre-Stressed Concrete

INTRODUCTION

The early history of prestressed concrete is almost entirely related to rearmament and the war

effort, beginning in the early 1930s with the German preparations for the Second World War. The

underlying idea had been around for a long time, but it was Eugene Freyssinet who carne up with the

invention that allowed the idea to be put into practice. The French themselves showed no great interest

in the invention. The Germans, on the other hand, wished to save steel for war (a war they were also to

wage against France, of course), and the German company Wayss & Freytag obtained a license from

Freyssinet -only to use his system almost exclusively for the construction of bunkers.

Initially, the chief negotiator for Wayss & Freytag was Professor Karl W. Mautner, but since he

was a Jew by birth, the Nazis soon removed him from all his offices. In the pogrom of 9 November 1938,

he was arrested and detained in Buchenwald concentration camp for six weeks.

Sir Alan Harris -deputy head of P.C.C., the world' s first prestressed concrete firm, and later a

partner of Harris and Sutherland engineers informed us that the London firm of Mouchel Engineers

invested quite a lot of money and obtained the help of the secret services of several governments to free

Karl Mautner and get him and his wife out of Germany in the summer of 1939. Probably the most

important contents of Mautner's luggage were the records of pre-stressing trials carried out in France and

Germany.

These events led to the triumphant advance of this technology in Britain. There, too, it was initially

used almost exclusively for the construction of bunkers and for girders in temporary bridge construction

intended to repair eventual war damage. There is good reason to believe that all the parties involved in

these developments fulfilled their contractual obligations. Freyssinet provided the know-how, and the

recipient companies correctly paid their license fees. For at least one German bunker, concrete anchorage

cones for the sheaves of tensioning wires were delivered from France in 1943-44, together with the

appropriate jacking devices presumably. As a result, a collaboration between European building

contractors was possible after 1945 without disputes about money and fees. These post-war

developments parallel the emergence of the European Coal and Steel Community, which was formally

established in 1952 and which may be seen as one of the predecessors of the European Union.

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HISTORIC TIMELINE
1928 -Freyssinet together with Jean Seailles, submitted the first application for a
patent for the manufacturing process of pre-stressed concrete

Early 1930s -Preparations for World War II.

-Development of Pre-stressed concrete was top secret
-Eugene Freyssinet came up with the Pre-stressed concrete idea that has been
later put into practice
-Wayss & Freytag obtained license from Frayssinet to use his system exclusively
for use of bunker

1933 -Freyssinet accepted the assignment of saving the transatlantic quay in

LeHavre. Having the silt being overlooked the structure has been in danger of
collapsing even before it had been finished.
-Freyssinet solution were three large pre-stressed concrete girders, which he
inserted beneath the structure, underpinning them with additional piles.

1934 -Using Dischingers 1934 Patent, the Adolf Hitler Bridge has been the only one
built from the patent
-Karl Mautner acting on behalf of his company Wayss & Freytag entered into a
license agreement with Freyssinet. This Agreement was evidently respected
throughout the war and during post-war years.

1936 1937 -The Campenon Bernard Company erected the worlds first pre-stressed
concrete bridge in Oued Fodda, Algeria
-Steel Tension Chords were designed to allow for post-tensioning at a later date
to compensate for creep and shrinkage.
-The First Pre-stressed bridge was built
1938 - a first, small rural road bridge was erected with four girders having a span of
32m over the autobahn near Oelde (Beckum).

9th November 1938 -Professor Karl W. Mautner, chief negotiator for Wayss & Freytag was arrested
and detained in Buchenwald concentration camp for six weeks.
Summer 1939 -London Firm of Mouchel Engineers invested money and obtained help from
secret services to free Karl Mautner and his wife out of Germany carrying
records of pre-stressing trials carried out in France and Germany
September 1939 -Concrete anchorage cones was invented.
28 May 1940 -A trial girder was tested to failure having under debate at the society of British
Civil Engineers in England.
1940 1941 -Robert Shama, an Egyptian, used Freyssinets new tendons in spectacular form
in a military aircraft hangar built in Meerut north of Delhi.
-A bridge with a spanning distance of 42m across the river Klodzka Nysa was
built easy of Breslau (present day Wroclaw in Poland) and is still in an excellent
state of preservation
1941 1942 -Freyssinet built a bridge with a modest 10.5-meter span ins lab construction
over a river in Elbeuf near Rouen.
1942 1943 -A similar slab bridge with a 20-metre span was built over a river in Longroy
near Eu-le-Treport.
-a precast footbridge with spans 30 and 31-metres was constructed over the
railway line near Lens.
1943 1944 -For at least on German bunker, concrete anchorage cones for the sheaves of
tensioning wires were delivered from France together with the appropriate
jacking devices.

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 -The first railway bridge in pre-stressed concrete was built over the rue Miroir
in Brussels by Gustave Magnel in collaboration with the construction Company
Blaton Aubert.
1944 -In a bridge in Djedeida near Tunis, the segmental form of construction based
on Freyssinets ideas were used.
1945 -A collaboration between European building contractors was possible without
dispute about money and fees.
1950 -Post-tensioning was repeatedly carried out on the First Pre-stressed bridge but
the effect always disappeared after a few years
1952 -The European Coal and Steel Community emerged and has been seen as one
of the predecessors of the European Union
1992 -The First Pre-Stressed Bridge was demolished
Early 20th Century -Eugene Freyssinet was placed in charge of the construction of three bridges
across the River Allier.

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Figures
Concentration-camp
prisoners insert heavy mild-steel
antibomb reinforcement into
prestressed stringbow truss at
Bremen-Farge.

The first prestressed bridge, built 1936/37, Oued Fodda (Algeria) 1999

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Anchor piece as developed by Freyssinet in 1907 chiseled in 1998 from truss of the bunker Bremen-Frage
built in 1944. The neighboring concrete anchorage-cones (not shown) are those invented by Freyssinet in
1939 and delivered for this bunker from Paris.

Finsterwalders self-activating pre-stressing system

SOURCES

Grote, Jupp; Marrey, Bernard. 2000. Freyssinet, La

Prcontrainte et l' Europe/ Der Spannbeton und
Europa/Prestressing und Europe, 1930-1945. Paris:
ditions du Linteau. ISBN 2-910 342-13-1
This volume also contains a full list of the relevant
literature and communications.
Harris, Sir Alan. 1997. Freyssinet: The genius of pre-stressing. London: The Structural Engineer,
Vol. 75/No. 12

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