Est Est Est

Est Est Est

Longest, Tallest, Bestest!

These are the tops of the tallest and longest suspension bridge in the world; crossing the Tarn Valley in France it was built to by-pass the Town of Millau and speed up the journey from the North to South of France. We crossed it in miserable weather, often the clouds are below the road!

Fascinating Facts!
17 December 2004 : Opening of bridge to traffic
10 October 2001 : Construction work started
343 m : Height at top of pylons
280 m / 919 ft: Height of roadway over the Tarn
2,460 m / 155 miles: Total length of roadway
8 spans resting on 7 piers
span widths: 204 m between abutments and first and last piers
342 m spans between remaining piers
2230 tonnes : Weight of each of the 16 sections of road-deck. Each section is built up from 60 tonne deck-units, each 4 m wide by 17 m long. The deck-units are built in Eiffel’s factories at Lauterbourg and Fos-sur-Mer.
36,000 tonnes : Total weight of roadbed’s steel structure
(5 times that of the Eiffel tower)
19,000 tonnes : Steel used for reinforcing the concrete piers
5,000 tonnes : Steel used for the stays and cables
Type of deck : steel orthotropic (orthogonally anisotropic)
4.20 m : Thickness of steel road-deck
32.05 m : Width of road-deck
205,000 tonnes : Concrete
85,000 m3 : Total volume of concrete
9,000 tonnes : Road tarmac – specially flexible bitumen laid to 6 cm thickness
4,000 tonnes : Standard bitumen for the emergency strips on either side
520 workers
300 million euro : Cost. The cost has finished at half the anticipated estimate.
(plus 20 million euro for the toll station 6 km from the bridge’s North end).
120 years : Predicted lifespan
Architect: Norman Foster
Constructor: Eiffage Group. Their website has a number of short web films on the bridge as construction progresses and an animation of the bridge in use.
Paris-Clermont-Ferrand-Béziers : The Viaduc de Millau will complete this north-south motorway through the heart of France, crossing the Massif Central.

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