2020 – La Rochelle, France – Tour St. Nicolas

The Saint Nicolas Tower (1384) along with the Lantern tower and the Chain tower, is one of the three medieval towers guarding the port in La Rochelle, France. The tower was named after the patron saint of sailors, and along with the Chain Tower (La tour de la Chaîne) stood at the entryway to the Port of La Rochelle. In 1879 the French government classified it as a Monument historique (MH).
Following the worsening of the crack pattern of a historically documented structural distress, Expin won a public tender (PLACE) for the execution of a complete structural scan of the tower, mostly by using NDT, such as GPRS, Sonic tomography, and micro-coring with endoscope to inspect the inner composition of masonry.