ABSTRACT
For the partnership of contractors William Mackenzie and Thomas Brassey, the fate of the first Barentin Viaduct was the most dramatic single event to occur during 10 years' work in France. The plans, specifications and descriptions of the first Viaduct indicate that its piers were set on concrete foundations followed, for twenty-one piers, by masonry bases; above that level everything was in brick. Malaunay Viaduct was reinforced by bolting plates onto the surface of the piers and, amongst several precautions, the bases and heads of the forty-eight piers of Mirville were enlarged. The new Barentin and the strengthening of the Viaduct were made special assignments of agents John Milroy and George Goodfellow, respectively. While the new Barentin was in the course of construction, engineers of Ponts et Chaussees applied their programme of stringent tests to every bridge and viaduct on the line, including that over the Seine at Rouen.
