Grandfey Viaduct

The viaduct crosses the deep and wide Saane/Sarine valley, which is cut into Molasse rock, in the hamlet of Grandfey in Granges-Paccot, about three kilometres north of Fribourg station on the way to Düdingen.

In 1856, the Lausanne–Fribourg–Bern Railway Company commissioned engineer Leopold Blotnitzki to carry out studies for this most complex construction project in its route network.

The design was developed by a commission of four, consisting of Durbach, Karl Etzel, François Jacqmin and Wilhelm Nördlinger, as the engineer (who was then active in France under the name Nordling) was called in Stuttgart.

Planning for the construction process was carried out by Ferdinand Mathieu, senior engineer of the French iron and steel company Schneider et Cie in Le Creusot, which had received the metalworking contract for the bridge.

[1] The Grandfey Viaduct is considered the first bridge where Ferdinand Mathieu, senior engineer of Schneider & Cie., used the incremental launch method that he invented.

With the electrification of the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) network, the bridge had to be strengthened to carry heavier and faster locomotives and train compositions.