Amid the thunderous cheers of countless spectators, the oldest seaworthy three-master of Europe, the Belem, sailed as the first large ship into Port de la Lune, the harbor of Bordeaux, passing under the new lift bridge, the Pont Jacques Chaban-Delmas. The core of this 433 meters long lift bridge is the 117 meters mobile center piece which rises up 53 meters between the four 77 meters high pylons. This makes it the largest lifting bridge in Europe.

After a construction time of slightly more than 3 years this bridge over the Garonne now connects the eastern and the western parts of Bordeaux and will greatly improve the traffic situa- tion in the city center of Bordeaux. The build-ing of the lift bridge ensures that the historic city center, which was awarded the status of UNESCO world heritage site in 2007, can now profit from the development of the cruise business. For example, in 2013 a total of 40 cruise liners docked in the harbor of Bordeaux.

The specialty wire rope CASAR Turboplast played an important role in the success of the three-master passing under the new lift bridge. Forty ropes of 69 meters in length each connect to the center bridge segment which weighs 2,600 tonnes, via deflection pulleys at the top of the four pylons using counterweights. These counterweight ropes, with a diameter of 76 mm, were produced especially for this project in the CASAR wire rope plant in Limbach where the ropes were measured under operating load and provided with end connections at both sides, with the longitudinal tolerance being +/- 20 mm. An additionally applied jacket line facilitated the installation and ensured the torque-proof assembly of the ropes at the lift bridge. Ten of these ropes per pylon are respectively connected to a counter- weight of approximately 1/4 total weight of the mobile bridge segment‘s.