Jean Muller

Biography

Jean MULLER is an engineer and French contractor born in 1925 in Paris, deceased in 2005. Raise Central École of Arts and Manufactures (speciality construction) of 1945 to 1947.

More attracted by physical sciences, Jean MULLER developed a real taste for the resistance of materials applied to mechanical engineering and construction.

Disciple of Eugene Freyssinet: 1947 - 1950

Jean MULLER on the occasion to work for this large manufacturer, true inventive of prestressed and his innumerable applications. At that time, Freyssinet developed its first applications of the prefabrication of Works of art (Bridges on the Marne).

For the Master, Jean MULLER drew up the project of three arch bridges in Venezuela, record for their time of free range (150 m), of audacity and elegance.

Jean MULLER remained a faithful disciple of Freyssinet until his departure (1963).

Principal Achievements

A first American experiment: 1951 - 1955

The STUP at the time, today International Freyssinet wished to be introduced on the US market, primary market world of construction. At the time, prestressing was unknown there and steel was king.

The task entrusted to Company Freyssinet of New York (Jean MULLER and its team) was difficult, but enriching. It was the moment to develop prestressing.

To take part in the construction of the large bridge of Pontchartrain in Louisiana (38 km length) remains a happy memory of this period.

The company and years of prosperity: 1956 - 1977

Of return in France, Jean MULLER continued his career within the company Campenon Bernard, during the most beautiful years of civil engineering, and in very varied fields:

Dams concrete: Djen-Djen in Algeria, Sefid-Rud and Karun in Iran, calling upon prestressed rock of foundation and concrete works.
maritime Works and platforms offshore oil rig: lock prefabricated of Boulogne, platform of Ekofisk at sea of North.
nuclear Genius: containments (Tihange in Belgium and Fessenheim in France), then boxes of pressure (Vandellos in Spain).
Works of art: it is the field of election of the technical innovation, where the engineer can associate form and function to carry out the true ones open Article the experience gained at Eugene Freyssinet then appeared irreplaceable.

The technique of the voussoirs prefabricated with combined joints saw its first industrial realization with the bridge of Choisy-the-King (1962). A new family of works of art had been born. Developed in France then in the world, it reached an extraordinary diffusion.

a second American experiment: 1978 - 1987

While reducing the technique of the voussoirs prefabricated to its greater simplicity, it was adapted to the practices of method and rationalization of the world of construction to the United States. The examination of the forms and the simplicity of the methods of construction were allied with the use of external prestressing. Such was the key of the exceptionally favorable reception which was reserved for the innovating processes of Jean MULLER by the US market. The achievements were connected at accelerated intervals: road or highway bridges, railway works, urban viaducts for transport in exclusive right of way. The concrete stayed girder bridge of Tampa (Sunshine Skyway Bridge), extrapolation of the bridge of Brotonne remains the witness of this period.

Group EGIS - SCETAUROUTE and INTERNATIONAL JEAN MULLER: 1988 - 1994

Jean MULLER approached the last phase of his professional path.

Integration with the largest European project superintendent in highway and road infrastructures, of a team of specialists in great works of art, equipped with an unequalled experiment INTERNATIONAL JEAN MULLER was to produce interesting results.

In France initially, where the highway program continued actively, Jean Muller got busy to conceive and carry out exceptional works (the bridge on Isere on a49 highway), or innovating (bridge on Roize), without neglecting the development of optimized current works (PS JMI-UChannel).

In the world, the activity developed in North America and Southeast Asia with surprising successes, such as:

the railway viaduct of Monterrey in Mexico (18 km length),
the viaduct of the H-3 highway in Hawaii in a site splendid, but exceptionally difficult,
road and railway bridges of Bangkok in Thailand.
One of greatest works of art contemporary in Canada: the bridge of the Island of Prince Edward who comprises 44 spans of 250 m and makes 12.9 km. Lastly, of the single works like the bridge Saint Pierre in Toulouse, the viaduct of Chavanon and the viaduct of the Arm of the Plain.

Distinctions

1963 Medal DUPLAT-TAYLOR, British Section of the Civil engineers of France.
1976 Prices FRITZ-SCHUMACHER, University of Stuttgart for its contribution brought to the construction of the bridges.
1977 ENGINEERING NEWS RECORDS (ENR). Quotation for the construction of the Bridge of Brotonne.
1978 Medal of the INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION OF PRESTRESSED (FIP), given at the time of the 8th Congress to London for remarkable contributions to the project of the bridges to voussoirs.
1980 Prices ALBERT CAQUOT (Association of the Civil engineers). First prize winner of this price rewarding the author for an exceptional work or a whole of remarkable works.
1980 “Fifteenth HENRY Mr. SHAW Reading in Civilian engineering”. Quotation for the conference at the University of North Carolina on the construction of the viaduct of Cove Flax.
1980 GUERITT MEDAL of the British Section of the Company of the Civil engineers of France for his publication entitled “Dévelopments in Bridge Design - Examples from France and the USA”.
1981 ENGINEERING NEWS RECORD (ENR). Quotation for the innovation brought to the study of the concrete bridges for Keys of Florida.
1981 ACEC (American Consulting Engineers Council) “FELLOWs AWARD OFF HONOR” rewarding the application for new processes in the study and the construction of bridges allowing of the notable economies.
1982 Docteur Honoris Causa of the Polytechnic University of Lausanne in Switzerland, for its contribution to the development of concrete works of art.
1985 Prices of CONGRESSIONNAL INSTITUTE FOR SPACE, SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY for the contribution in the engineering of systems of the project of the Viaduct of Cove Flax.
1987 Member of honor of CONCRETE AMERICAN INSTITUTE.
1988 Price EIFFEL d' Or First prize winner of the international prize allotted by the foundation of the family Gustave EIFFEL at the time of the centenary of the construction of the Tower.
1992 Chivalric insignias of the Legion of Honor.
1994 Prices of the Engineer of the year (Central, new Factory and EDF).
1995 BROWN Medal of the university FRANKLIN Benjamin in Philadelphia - the USA

External bonds

Structurae: Jean Muller

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