Restoration of fragile remains of bridges in Lebanon

Abstract

Many bridges have been built in Lebanon, due to its geography of rivers and valleys. These bridges mostly belong to Roman, Mediaeval and Ottoman periods or to the French mandate. With modern urban development, new vacant transportation means such as highways appeared in Lebanon during the 1920s. These new roads crossed through the same passages as the old roads or bridges; sometimes they were parallel and sometimes overlapping. The historical variable bridges became residue and adjacent to the new highways. Large high-speed highways transformed the historical bridges into neglected elements of the landscape. Only a few bridges, belonging to the French mandate (1920-1945), are still used as vacant transportation means. This article presents a proposal to promote and enhance those remaining historical bridges. The proposal includes techniques to be used, including lighting and security system as well as restoration and consolidation interventions, the transformation process and the activity proposal. The author uses the Jaj Bridge to illustrate this proposal.