(b Objat, Correze, 13 July 1879; d Saint-Martin-de-Vesubie, nr Nice, 8 June 1962). French engineer and theorist. He attended the Ecole Polytechnique and the Ecole des Ponts et Chaussées, Paris, where he studied with Jean Résal (1854–1919), Paul Séjourné (1851–1939) and Charles Rabut (1852–1925), the latter being one of the pioneers of reinforced concrete. In his first post as a government engineer in Moulins (1907–13) Freyssinet built a number of reinforced-concrete bridges, including that at Prairéal-sur-Besbre (1907), where for the first time the centring was struck by the use of jacks, creating a thrust at the crown. For the contractor François Mercier he built several works under state supervision. In 1910–12 he undertook to build three three-arch concrete bridges over the River Allier for the cost of one masonry bridge. The first, at Le Veurdre (1910; destr. 1940), was designed with a flat, lightly reinforced three-hinged arch with horizontal jacks at mid-span that raised the arch for decentring. The arch sank by 130 mm during the winter of 1910–11 due to deformation of the concrete, and Freyssinet raised the jacks to induce stresses that would counteract the downward deflection, an idea that provided the basis for his later development of prestressed concrete. His second bridge over the River Allier, at Boutiron (1912), constructed by Claude Limousin’s building company, was designed on similar principles.

• Freyssinet, Eugène
  • Concrete, §II, 1(i)(b): After c 1850: Reinforced concrete
  • Shell structure, §1: Early examples
  • groups and movements
    • Paris, §VI, 4: Corps des Ponts et Chaussées
  • works
    • Bridge, §2(iii)(d): After c 1790: Concrete
    • Concrete, §I: Types and properties
    • France, §II, 5(i): Architecture, after c 1914: Purism, Cubism and the Modern Movement