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 The Millau viaduct (general view) |
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 The Millau viaduct (zoom on 2 piers) |
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The inauguration of the viaduct on 14 December 2004
The official opening of the viaduct on 16 December 2004
The opening up of the Massif Central which has long been overdue will soon be effective after the end of the building of the Millau viaduct located on the A75 motorway on the main road between Paris and Barcelona.
The viaduct, built by the French company Eiffage, is the highest bridge in the world. Therefore its conception
resorted to supercalculators with state-of-the-art simulation softwares enabling to design such a gigantic bridge in the best safety conditions.
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The Millau viaduct (general view) |
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The Millau viaduct (zoom on 2 piers) |
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The English architect Lord Norman Foster designed the Millau viaduct in close collaboration with enginners.
His studio of architecture and design, Foster and Partners, is famous for its international projects such as the new German Parliament (Reichstag) in Berlin, the McLaren Technology Centre in Woking (the new basis of McLaren, the British Formula 1 team headed by Ron Dennis), the future airport in Beijing (China) for the 2008 Olympics or the future rail station in Florence (Italy).
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 A cross section of the roadway |
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 The Millau viaduct |
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Straddling the city of Millau (Aveyron - France), the Clermont-Ferrand - Béziers railway (on the Paris - Béziers line) and the Tarn river, the viaduct spans about 2.5 kilometres (2,460 metres). Each section of the viaduct spans 350 metres and the highest pier is 343 metres high (it is 19 metres higher than the Eiffel Tower in Paris).
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 The Millau viaduct (piers and roadway) |
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 The Clermont-Ferrand - Béziers railway (the station of Millau) |
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The Millau viaduct will be operational as early as the end of 2004. Other European projects in civil engineering have just been achieved (the Rion-Antirion bridge in Greece) or are being built (the Strait of Messina bridge linking Italy to Sicily).
A video of the Millau viaduct during its building
© tgveurofrance.com