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World’s tallest bridge
Millau Viaduct, France
Like the Burj Khalifa, the Millau Viaduct in France is one of those structures that you simply can’t get sick of looking at. A staggering feat of engineering, the bridge stands as a monument to what can be achieved when, on those exceptionally rare occasions, British technical ability and French tenacity combined to produce something truly extraordinary.
Like the Concorde and Channel Tunnel, the Millau Bridge was an Anglo-Saxon effort. Designed by French structural engineer Michel Virlogeux and British architect Norman Foster, the bridge’s highest mast towers 343m over the Tarn Valley floor. That’s higher than the Eiffel Tower (324m) and just short of the John Hancock Centre in Chicago (344m). There is 270m clearance from the bridge deck to the valley floor: enough room to stack three 747-8s end-on-end and still have 30m headroom – should you be so inclined.
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Main contractor Effiage, also involved in the Channel Tunnel project, was a natural choice for the job: the company was formed in 1992 after the amalgamation of Fougerolle (founded 1844), Quillery (founded 1863), Beugnet (founded 1871), and La Societe Auxiliaire d' Enterprises Electriques et de Travaux Public, better known as SAE (founded in 1924). The construction consortium also included the Eiffel company, responsible for the steel roadway, ENERPAC for the roadway’s hydraulic supports, Freyssinet for the cable stay work – and several other key sub-contractors.
The bridge broke three records when it opened: that for the highest pylons in the world (244.96m and 221.05m), the highest bridge tower in the world (the mast atop pylon 2 hits 343m) and Europe’s highest road bridge deck at 270m. It also has the longest bridge deck that is supported only by cable stays and pylons (at 2460m).
Since opening, the deck height of the Millau has been surpassed by four bridges in China, and it will also soon relinquish its title as highest cable-stayed bridge to a new project being built in Mexico.
As world’s tallest bridge, Millau’s nearest rival is the Sutong Bridge in China which stands 306m high but boasts the world’s longest cable stayed bridge span at 1,088m.
The world’s highest bridge (ranked by measuring the clearance between the deck and the ground or water below) is the Si Du River Bridge in China. The suspension bridge spans the 500m deep Si Du River valley, with 472m of clearance below the bridge deck.
Statistics
Structure: Millau Viaduct
Location: Tarn Valley, southern France
Work started: October 2001
Completed: December 2004
Client: Ministry of Public Works, France
Main contractor: Effiage (France)
Designer: Norman Foster and Michel Virlogeux
Height: 343m
Nearest rival: Sutong Bridge, 306m
Fast facts
2,460m -- Total length of road way
85,000 -- Cubic metres of concrete used
290,000 tons -- Total weight of bridge
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FEATURED COMMENT
2 World Record Projects completed by my company Al Habtoor Engineering. Congratulations!