Dam Rossens

The stopping of Rossens is in Suisse, in the Canton of Freiburg. It retains the Lac of the Gruyere. It was built between 1945 and 1948.

Dimensions of the stopping

The total height of the stopping is of 83 meters, its length with the crowning of 320 meters. The thickness is of 28 meters at the base, 14 meters in the average area and is reduced to 5 meters with the peak. This one is surmounted by road a 5,5 meters broad flanked of two pavements and corbellings of 1,5 meters.

Construction of the Stopping

The construction of the stopping of Rossens began in spring 1945 to finish on November 17th 1948 definitively. The budget envisaged was of 60 million Swiss francs, but the stopping finally cost 1,114 additional franc million, that is to say 61,114 million. This going beyond is due to the wage increase of the workmen working on the building site.

Preliminary work

The spring of the year 1944 was devoted to preliminary work. It initially was necessary to seek the gravels necessary to construction. Then, one prepared the ground where one will build the Digue protection, upstream of the stopping. To facilitate the access to the stopping, it was necessary to build a road on left bank. This road to devair to connect Rossens and the site of the building site. Another work remained to be undertaken before the construction itself of the stopping: they were two galleries of Dérivation intended to deviate water during the construction of the stopping.

Materials

The gravel intended for the concrete came from the hill of Momont, in the commune of Bridge-the-City. But cement gave some problem to the persons in charge: the post-war period was not a period of most favorable to guarantee materials sufficient for this kind of important work. The persons in charge had to defer the work envisaged in winter to spring. Cement arrived at Freiburg by rail: 250 tons day laborers were then transported to Rossens by truck.

First stone

It is with a delay of a few weeks compared to the expected program that the installation of the first stone took place. May 29th, 1946, a small ceremony marked this event. The children had leave. The Priest-senior of Bridge-the-City blesses the first stone. This stone was in fact a bucket of concrete, run in a wood formwork. To make this concrete, one needed sand, gravel and cement.

Stopping

The concrete left the mixers and was received in buckets; those were transported by way on immense the Gantry. Finally the concrete was deposited, by means of cranes, with the site envisaged. It was cast in regular layers then tight with Pervibrateur S. When a layer was finished, one installed a horizontal construction joint, intended to ensure joining with the following layer.

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