Sur les routes de France les ponts renaissent

At the end of the war, many bridges have been destroyed and many cities are isolated. Shipyards start everywhere in France. The main issues are the lack of manpower and of materials. Rebuilders have to deploy treasure of imagination to reconstruct the destroyed bridges. A few months after the end of the Second World War, a sad fact emerged: 5,944 passages were cut, i.e. more than 110 km of breaches; many towns were isolated. Construction sites were busy throughout France to "win the battle of road communications". But in addition to the shortage of manpower, there was also a lack of materials (concrete, metal) and therefore a great deal of imagination was required to rebuild the destroyed bridges. If the knowledge of the stone masons was exploited, the most spectacular work was the lifting of bridges, such as the Galliéni bridge in Lyon, where 7 to 800 tons of steel were lifted out of the water with the means of the time. In April 1945, there were 5,700 bridges to be rebuilt, i.e. 200,000 tons of steel, 600,000 tons of cement, 250,000 m3 of wood, 10 million days of work, the price of the reconstruction effort. (Text machine-translated) Quelques mois après la fin de la Seconde Guerre mondiale, un triste constat s'impose : 5 944 passages sont coupés, soit plus de 110 km de brèches ; de nombreuses villes se trouvent isolées. Les chantiers s'activent dans toute la France pour "gagner la bataille des communications routières". Mais outre la pénurie de main d’œuvre, il faut faire face au manque de matériaux (béton, métal) et donc déployer des trésors d'imagination pour reconstruire les ponts détruits. Si le savoir faire des tailleurs de pierre est exploité, le plus spectaculaire est le relevage des ponts, comme le pont de Galliéni à Lyon, où 7 à 800 tonnes d'acier sont sorti de l'eau avec des moyens de l'époque. En avril 1945, il reste 5 700 ponts à reconstruire soit 200 000 tonnes d'acier, 600 000 tonnes de ciment, 250 000 m3 de bois, 10 millions de journées d'ouvrier, prix de l'effort de reconstruction.