Dr. Menn received his civil engineering degree in 1950 and his Ph.D. in 1956 from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich, Switzerland. Between 1952 and 1956, after serving in the private sector in Switzerland, Dr. Menn was an assistant professor in the institute's department of structural engineering. In 1957, after working for 10 months with a contractor in Paris, he returned to the private sector. In Kohr, Switzerland, he owned his own structural engineering consulting firm.
These were formative years for Menn. He told ROADS & BRIDGES, that although he preferred bridge design to building design, one of his first and greatest role models was the Italian engineer and architect Pier Louigi Nervi. During his time in Paris, Dr. Menn said his work on the Unesco Building was heavily influenced by Nervi. "He is known for his reinforced concrete buildings," said Dr. Menn. " I have very high admiration for Narvie."
After his return to Switzerland, Dr. Menn's interests turned mainly to bridges. "I find bridges more interesting than buildings," he said. "When you design bridges you are absolutely free in your design. When you are designing buildings you always are collaborating with architects. And also, bridges are more attractive."
From 1971 until his retirement in 1992, Dr. Menn was a professor of structural engineering at ETH, specializing in bridge design. Today, he continues to perform conceptual designs as a consultant.
New Collaborations
Recently, he has collaborated on two major bridge projects in the U.S.: Boston's Charles River Bridge and the new eastern half of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. While in the U.S. to accept his award, he attended meetings in Boston and San Francisco.
His involvement with the design of the Charles River Bridge occurred by chance more than four years ago. Invited to Harvard to lecture, an architect asked him to join him on a trip to Boston's South Station where he met with officials from Parsons Brinckerhoff and subsequently was asked to become involved in the design team.
"The Charles River Bridge is a very interesting structure," said Dr. Menn. "A cable-stayed bridge, it is very wide with eight lanes for I-93. There are an additional two lanes for on and off ramps."
On the Bay Bridge, he has participated as a member of a panel that reviewed potential designs for the section of the bridge replacing the eastern cantilever half of the double-decker bridge that was damaged in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake.
Although Caltrans' proposed a cantilever bridge, his thoughts are that a cable-stayed bridge ultimately will be the choice.
His efforts with the two bridge projects have been so well received that he has an agreement with Parsons and HNTB to collaborate on additional projects.
In his distinguished career, Dr. Menn has designed numerous bridges, as well as commercial buildings, and has, since 1971, served as consultant to the Cantonal Highway Departments for design and execution of the departments' bridge projects in Switzerland.
Designs of Note
Some of Dr. Menn's most notable bridge designs include:
-- The Rhine River Bridge at Reichenau. At the time, the early 1960s, the structure was the first arch bridge with partially prestressed stiffening girders.
-- The Hardturm Viaduct, a 1,000-m-long railroad bridge in Zurich.
-- The Felsenau Bridge built in Bern, Switzerland in 1972. The first single-celled, six-lane segmental concrete box girder. At the time, the structure was the longest jointless concrete bridge at 1,100 m.
"The Felsenau Bridge is perhaps the most important bridge that I have designed," said Dr. Menn. "It is in the capital of my native country and the bridge is part of a major freeway that connects Bern to Geneva."
Projects upon which Dr. Menn has been the expert for the elaboration of design fundamentals and the entire examination of the calculations and drawing of extraordinary bridges include:
-- The 2,000-m-long Las de la Gruyre Viaduct;
-- The 3,000-m-long Slope Bridge at Beckenried; and
-- The cable-stayed Rhine Bridge at Diepoldsau.
What of the future of bridge design? "There are always new designs," he said. "Not so many as during the '60s and '70s, but there are always new bridges needed."
A proponent of the use of steel and concrete together on bridges, he points to the Charles River Bridge as an example. "One should use the most appropriate building material for a bridge," he said. "I like steel and concrete.
"In my opinion, the Bay Bridge should be a mix of steel and concrete. The materials are well suited for big span structures such as this. Steel is lighter than concrete and more effective in an earthquake area."
Dr. Menn's research has focused on the durability of reinforced and prestressed concrete structures including crack control, minimum reinforcement, influence of crack width on corrosion. In addition, his work has involved non-linear computer programming in the areas of geometrical and material non-linearity.
Dr. Menn is a member of the Swiss Society of Civil Engineers (SIA), the Swiss Trade Group for Bridge and Building Engineering (FBH) and the International Association for Bridge and Structural Engineering (IABSE). He is a past president of the Swiss Code-Committee for Reinforced and Prestressed Concrete Structures. He also is a member of the FBH board and a member of the ETH Research Committee.
In 1982 in Hamburg, Germany, Dr. Menn was awarded the Fritz-Schumacher-Preis Medal for outstanding bridge design.
