Connected communities Enabled French holiday makers to reach the south of France more easily. Economy boosted The bridge itself is a must-see local tourist attraction.
Environment benefited Less congested traffic producing harmful exhaust fumes. Solved the problem Created a significantly more direct route, cutting road journey times. Used engineering skill Spans a massive empty space with one of the highest bridges ever built. Construct a vehicle bridge across a massive valley in southern France. It was built using an incredible , tonnes of steel and concrete and is held up by 1, tonnes of steel cable. Difference the viaduct has made Millau viaduct relieved a severe bottleneck that slowed down thousands of tourists driving from northern France to the Mediterranean coast.
How the work was done The bridge is 2. Construction challenges included extreme weather such as strong winds and low cloud. John Lichfield Journalist , writing on the bridge opening for the Independent newspaper. Fascinating facts Millau Viaduct has been consistently ranked as one of the great engineering achievements of all time. More about this project engineeringcivil. Explore more civil engineering projects. Metal deck is covered with modified bitumen, which is flexible but strong so it can adapt to deformations which appear under traffic and, at the same time, is strong enough so it can resist road conditions.
Ideal formula was discovered after two years of experimenting. Electrical installations of the viaduct consist of: 30km of cables for high current; 20km of fiber-optics; 10 km of cable for low current and telephone sockets so workers can communicate with each other or with command post.
Many instruments are installed on masts, deck, pylons and stays that monitor states and detect changes and resistance of the viaduct to wear and tear.
All information gathered from instruments is analyzed and sent to toll plaza. Toll plaza is placed 4 km north of viaduct. Bridge tollbooths and technical and commercial management is placed there. The design of the bridge began in with Michel Virlogeux, an engineer who at the time was working with the engineering firm Setra. Later, a design competition refined his initial multi-cable stayed concept further. This group continued to change the basic design until a committee of experts, politicians and specialists officially approved the 8-span cable stayed scheme in April of A final set of plans would take two more years of design and testing.
Construction began in October of and took a little over 3 years - exceptional for such a large, complicated undertaking. The steel wire cable stays were installed by Freyssinet. Several other consortiums worked on the project from France and several other European countries including Spain, Italy and Sweden. The 3 year construction period had many unique challenges, the most significant being the unusual launching of the roadway. Instead of cantilevering the road deck outward in small sections from each of the 7 tall pylons, the deck was constructed on flat land on the north and south sides of the bridge in two large sections.
Hydraulic jacks on the tops of the piers were then synchronized to move the entire deck out over the valley in small increments of about 2 feet mm.
Both sides eventually met over the Tarn river. She cost somewhere in the order of million Euros to build and officially opened for business in The viaduct is widely considered a great technical and architectural feat and has won various awards since its inauguration. Those interested in bridges, and heading for the Millau Viaduct south down the A75 motorway from Clermont Ferrand, will want to stop off on the way to view another magnificent viaduct, Gustave Eiffel's Viaduc de Garabit.
This great 19th-century viaduct is best seen from the motorway rest area, the Aire de Service Viaduc Garabit Eiffel, where there is a small interpretive center. The Millau Viaduct was first conceived in the late s and construction began in Her construction took three years to complete and she was inaugurated in December of At the time of writing, this makes the viaduct 15 years old since completion.
Today the viaduct is a fond favorite of architectural fans the world over. While the motorway is free to use, there is a toll charge to cross the viaduct. Toll booths are located a couple of kilometers north of the viaduct. The viaduct was built to combat congestion on local roads around Millau during the summer holidays.
Before her construction traffic needed to descend into the valley to traverse the area. Construction began in and took three years to complete. She was inaugurated in December of
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