Original subtitles

"Concrete" Operation

At an altitude of 2500 meters, in the "Val des Dix", a thousand men are building...

a concrete wall as tall as the Eiffel Tower, the "Grande-Dixence" dam.

Since the cold makes impossible the concrete-making process...

the site must be ready for early spring and is led like a military camp.

Suddenly, in Spring, girls begin to talk.

Marmots no longer whistle their worries and joys.

In the heat of the sun, there are no more scientists' meetings...

because, this morning, in the meadows...

the thunder of engines and detonations...

abruptly pierced the silence.

In this plundered place, there is no longer room for daydreaming.

Rocks bursting from explosions and

mechanical engines are prelude to the adventures...

The Concrete Operation has begun.

Pitilessly, powerful machines endlessly plow the glaciers.

To keep up with the rhythm of the campaign...

15 tons of raw material must be extracted every day.

100 000 times each year until the end of the operation...

gigantic 26-ton trucks will transport from Moraine...

material which is directly put into a giant grinder.

This terrific steel jaw can crush 3 tons in a few seconds.

Day and night, the run keeps going.

Millions and millions of molecules pulled out of the mountain...

leave the path of Prat-Fleury on a conveyor belt...

and are sent 300 meters below to Blaza...

a name as daunting as the rocks that used to decorate every road...

before the engineers turned this place into a metallic heart.

Through their work, giant installations have attached to the stones.

Laboratories, cable cars, and towers have suddenly appeared, as if by magic

Blaza, a village at the top of the world.

They must make an organism of iron and steel work restlessly and without failing.

Here is the balastre, essential for the process of making concrete.

Conveyor belts follow each others in an inferno of sorting and washing stations.

The sorting, washing and crushing secondary station of Blaza...

transforms raw material of 120 millimeters from Plat-Fleury...

into the sand and gravel needed for making concrete.

Incredible and marvelous machinery!

Sorting, washing, crushing, raising, creating...

The balastre is separated into 4 categories of gravel...

from 1 to 120 millimeters.

Those categories, perfectly clean...

are separated by conveyor belts...

and stored into silos...

where they will wait for the concrete mixer.

Only cement is missing.

Here it is. Roaming for hours in the Romance Valley...

before it arrives at the final station of the cable car.

Now, every 30 seconds...

loaded with 400 kilograms of cement...

a bag from the Rh�ne Valley enters the building site.

While a vacuum system carries the cement to the towers...

conveyor belts come for the last time to take the balastre...

sort it into the silos...

and send it to the concrete mixer.

The 6 concrete mixers swallow 800 tons of cement every day.

The only goal is to mix tirelessly...

this hard paste which will turn into a fabric...

thanks to a thousand men working together with faith and courage.

Once the concrete is done...

specially equipped trucks, the "Silobi"...

carry it and lower it into a dumpster...

which will transport the mixture 200 meters below...

where it is needed.

This is how, 700 times a day...

16 000 kilograms of concrete fly from one side of the valley to another...

stored in a weird little cart sliding on cables...

At the speed of 5 meters per second...

Named "Blondin" after the French tightrope walker.

There are 4 "Blondins," driven by an electric group...

which provide the direct current needed for each of them.

The cables carrying the "Blondin" are at anchor on a fixed common point

on the left side of the valley...

and a movable point on the right side.

It's a 120-ton house...

sliding on a ramp shared by the 4 "Blondins"...

that allow them to be moved in every direction.

Thus, 25 kilometers of cable...

have formed a mysterious spider web in the valley.

The fragile steel cable structure...

is carefully maintained by technicians...

as the proper functioning of the operation depends on it.

Before we go down to the future dam site...

let's have a look at the laboratory...

which controls the production of concrete.

Each item brought by the Blondin...

is controlled before it leaves the "Concrete Tower".

A few kilograms are taken.

In the laboratory, it will undergo...

a miniature process similar to the final construction.

A tiny part of the dam is thus created...

so that its strength can be tested.

This block going to press was created 28 days ago.

It can withstand a 200 ton pressure...

or approximately 280 kilograms per square centimeter.

In 10 months, its resistance will increase by 25%.

The new Dixence dam...

is located 500 meters downstream from the previous one.

Soon, it will be buried under the accumulation basin.

The building site's organization...

is made so that, every day...

4000 cubic meters of concrete are delivered.

This quantity is equivalent to the construction of 4 big buildings.

This cornice is working 11 hours a day.

Day and night shifts take turn without respite...

so as to win this tremendous fight.

The process is made block per block.

They are placed so that they fit together.

A few minutes after it is loaded...

with the precious concrete...

the Blondins reach the blocks.

But it's blind.

An operator controls the maneuver.

He guides the Blondin's driver

sitting one kilometer away in its cabin...

and receiving instruction for arrivals and departures.

Take a stand.

Indistinct...

Stop! Here!

Move the tower.

Stop.

Here is good.

Slowly.

Stop. Drop it quickly now.

Haul back now!

The whole hive of activity is busy with this huge construction.

Cleaning and preparing the site...

Handling the heavy vibrators to break and spread the concrete.

No time wasted.

Silos are fervently built for the future dam.

where in three years...

55 cubic meters of water will rush in each second

providing 1.7 billion kWh each year to Switzerland.

This block is finished.

Workers water it immediately.

They clean with jets of water this rough and delicate surface.

where a new layer will be deposited in 3 days.

That's how time flies in the Grand-Dixence.

Days and nights, on and on for 15 years

over its entire length and height

up to the achievement of the highest dam in the world.