The Arhievements of The Minicipal Gas of The Town of Grenoble

For the Olympic Games, the Gas and Electricity Company of Grenoble had to guarantee the supply of electricity during the periods of preparation, and above all during the events. To do this, efforts were made on the following points.

POWER GUARANTEED IN MEDIUM VOLTAGE

The power required was concentrated in two important points:

— Paul Mistral Park
• Ice Stadium — power installed: 1,600 KVA
• Speed Circuit — power installed: 1,000 KVA
• Skating Rink — power installed: 500 KVA

— South zone including
• The equipment of the Olympic Village in the Priority Development Zone (1,600 new apartments).
• The equipment of the Press Centre in the Malherbe district.

NEW DISTRIBUTION NETWORK

The creation of the Olympic Village and Press Centre districts for the Games, led the Company to construct a complete network including medium voltage, low voltage, public lighting and remote control. The company, in complete charge of this work, was responsible for the execution or supervision of the new installations.

Were put into service in September 1967:

— 20 prefabricated posts, with a total power of 5000 kVA.
— 64 metres of Cables MV or LV of different sections.

This work cost about 2 million francs.

A distributor post with double supply and overall metre system permitted operations in safety. For the period from 1st January 1968 to 29th February 1968, the total energy provided for the Games was about 2,500,000 kilowatt-hours.

For the illuminations and various shows, two hundred boxes or terminals operated by remote control were installed in the different important roads of the town.
From 4th to 18th February, 60 of the representatives of the Electricity Company were on duty at the critical points to ensure the supply of current. During this period there were no incidents.

THE IMPROVEMENT OF PUBLIC LIGHTING

The number of lights increased from 6,835 on 1st January 1967 to 10,212 on 1st January 1968, representing a power of 2,100 KV. The principal roads of the town were equipped with balloon-type fluorescent lamps, of 400, 700 or 1,000 watts. Posts 14 and 16 metres high, equipped with 6 lamps of 700 or 1,000 watts were used to light large spaces.

The intensity of light on the ground, although fairly uniform throughout the town, was increased to 25, 45 or 60 lux, at certain places on the important arteries.
Also, for the Olympic Games, an effort was made for particular illuminations. All the sculptures of the International Symposium of August 1967, as well as the façades of the churches of Saint-Laurent and Saint-Louis were appropriately illuminated.

GAS

The work carried out for the Olympic Games can be classed in two categories:

— the complete equipment of a zone where no housing existed before the Games (Priority Urban Development Zone, MALHERBE);
— work due to the modification of the roads and railways (flyovers or underground passages, widening new roads, etc...).

The work of the first category concerned a group of buildings which contained about 2.200 apartments, intended for the use of the population of Grenoble after the Games.

The Company was therefore obliged to undertake, in this zone of 65 hectares, important equipment installations which had to be completed in one year. 10 kms of medium and low pressure canalisations, from 100 to 250 mm in diameter, were laid, and also 180 service pipes 40 to 80 mm in diameter: a gas pressure reducer of a nominal capacity of 3,000 m3 per hour was also built.

The works in the second category, were spread over several parts of the town.
All this work was carried out, using new techniques, and taking into account that natural gas will be available in Grenoble about 1972, and taking care to ensure the continuity of distribution with maximum security and regularity.

The whole of this work, costing 2,400,000 F. required the laying of 20,800 metres of pipes of diameters 40 to 350 mm. So, in the field of Gas and Electricity the Grenoble Company was able to satisfy all demands, often in difficult conditions as the time available was limited and important sums of money had to be invested, over and above the normal programme.

The Austrian Tyrol comes to Dauphiné

The expenses for the installation of projectors were shared between Electricity of France, COJO and the Municipalities concerned:

— So, in the Oisans, the church towers of the following villages were illuminated at night-fall.
— LA GARDE and HUEZ, villages perched on the mountain side, and situated on the beautiful route leading to the Olympic resort of Alpe d'Huez.
— LE FRENEY-D'OISANS, in the deep valley of the Romanche.
— MIZOEN, from where the admirable site of the Chambon lake can be seen.
— MONT-DE-LANS, on the other side of the valley from MIZOEN, above the dam of Chambon, a picturesque village on the route which leads to the resort of DEUX-ALPES.
— LA GRAVE, opposite the glaciers of the «Massif de la Meije».
— VILLARD-D'ARÈNE, finally, at an altitude of 1,650 metres is the last locality on the road of the Passes of Lautaret and Galibier.
— Further North, in the valley of Gresivaudan, near the Isere, the little town of La TERRASSE.
— On one of the roads leading to the Olympic resort of Chamrousse, VAULNAVEYS-LE-HAUT, with its fifteenth century church tower.
— To the South of Grenoble, the Church at Vif whose square Norman tower has kept its twelfth century structure.
— In the Vercors, as well as the tower of the little church of Saint-Nizier du Moucherotte, which miraculously escaped the destruction of the village in 1944, the Memorial of the Pioneers of the Vercors, erected to the memory of the Resistance heroes, killed in the bitter fighting of the Liberation, was also illuminated on the slope overlooking Grenoble.
— Finally, from the top of the 2,200 m. Cross of Chamrousse, a powerful luminous signal, threw its beam towards Grenoble, recalling the presence there of the great Olympic resort.

Another, less spectacular participation, which was greatly appreciated by the motorists taking the difficult road of Lautaret, was the lighting, in collaboration with the Highway Department of the Hautes-Alpes, of the three road tunnels, the passage of which is known to be very difficult, by day as well as by night.

THE «TROIS PUCELLES» CLIFFS ILLUMINATED

Finally, a prestige achievement, dedicated to the Mountain, to the Olympic Games, and to the hardy pioneers, who made Grenoble the cradle of «white coal»; the spectacular illumination of the «Trois Pucelles» Cliffs.

This rock which marks, with the snow capped ridge of the Moucherotte, 1,900 metres high, the first spur of the Massif of the Vercors, dominates Grenoble and overlooks the immense Stadium of the Olympic Ski-jump, not far from Saint-Nizier du Moucherotte.