Steel replaces concrete

The road to ITER is moving forward: just outside Peyrolles, the old concrete bridge over the Réal, on the D96, is currently being replaced by a new steel structure in order to withstand the weight of the future ITER "extra-large convoys."

The remaining part of the concrete bridge was cut up last week by a large, self-driven, rail-guided diamond saw. It took just one morning for Philippe Lagrange's men, from Fora-SDD, a small company based in Les-Pennes-Mirabeau, to cut the last 40-centimetre-thick wall into large slabs that could then easily be lifted by a crane.

Work on that bridge started in May this year and will be completed early in 2009 allowing two-way traffic to resume.