Josef Melan was an Austrian

Austrians

Austrians are a nation and ethnic group, consisting of the population of the Republic of Austria and its historical predecessor states who share a common Austrian culture and Austrian descent....

 engineer. He is regarded as one of the most important pioneers of reinforced concrete

Reinforced concrete

Reinforced concrete is concrete in which reinforcement bars , reinforcement grids, plates or fibers have been incorporated to strengthen the concrete in tension. It was invented by French gardener Joseph Monier in 1849 and patented in 1867. The term Ferro Concrete refers only to concrete that is...

 bridge-building at the end of the 19th century. Josef Melan is credited as the inventor of the Melan System, a method for the construction of reinforced bridges. Melan System was different from reinforced bridges built, because Melan did not build iron bars into the reinforced concrete bridge structure, but used rigid truss arches made of iron. Melan became famous in 1898 when he built after building a 42.4 m bridge with a very shallow arch in Steyr

Steyr

Steyr is a town, located in the Austrian federal state of Upper Austria. The town is situated at the confluence of the rivers Steyr and Enns. Steyr is Austria's 12th most populated town and simultaneously the 3rd largest town in Upper Austria....

 At that time, this was the largest reinforced concrete bridge in the world. He also built the Dragon Bridge

Dragon Bridge

Dragon Bridge is a road bridge located in Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia. It is situatedin the northeast of Vodnik Square across the Ljubljanica river. Built in the beginning of the 20th century, the bridge is today protected as a technical monument....

 in Ljubljana

Ljubljana

Ljubljana is the capital of Slovenia and its largest city. It is the centre of the City Municipality of Ljubljana. It is located in the centre of the country in the Ljubljana Basin, and is a mid-sized city of some 270,000 inhabitants...

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