Millau Viaduct Bridge in France held the tallest bridge in the world record. The towering is taller than the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
The Tallest Bridge in the World
The tallest bridge in the world is the Millau Viaduct, a cable-styled bridge in Southern France. The iconic bridge is 2,460 meters long and spans 342 meters. It has seven striking towers and a thin steel deck, carries the A75 freeway across the Tarn River valley, and connects Paris to the Mediterranean, per Freyssinet.
Even today, the Millau Viaduct's accomplishments are essentially unmatched. Its design and construction marked an unheard-of advancement in cable-stayed bridge technology.
The expertise and technology utilized to plan and construct the bridge represented the cutting edge of structural engineering at the time, and it is today a recognizable landmark worldwide.
The building had to be finished in just 39 months because it was part of a toll road for concessionaire Compagnie Eiffage du Viaduc de Millau. This was a concise timeline for such a revolutionary design. With such a structure, there was limited tolerance for error because many important components were on the critical path.
The bridge construction was tremendously thrilling and challenging for the team involved, according to Manuel Peltier, the Chairman and CEO of Soletanche Freyssinet. Teams from Freyssinet had the chance to show that they could provide a flexible solution that matched the project's restrictions.
The Freyssinet stay cables' flexibility was the ideal response to such a demanding construction process, and the project's emphasis on sustainability helped it fulfill the enhanced durability standards for stay cables.
Finally, it is essential to highlight how well the Freyssinet and Eiffel teams worked together during the cable installation operation.
Why Was the Millau Viaduct Bridge Built?
In 1987, the first discussion was about constructing a bridge to cross the Tarn Valley. In the past, eager tourists from Paris to Spain had to descend the valley to reach their destination. The Route Nationale N9, which travels close to the town of Millau, was particularly affected by this, as was the valley's infrastructure, per Interesting Engineering.
For locals, it frequently resulted in severe congestion and considerable disruption. An announcement was made 1991 to build the viaduct to relieve strain on local roadways since something needed to be done.
As a result, French structural engineer Michel Virlogeux and British architect Norman Foster were hired to carry it out.
Virlogeux, an expert in bridge design, just so happened to have created more than 100 bridges up to this time. Northern France's Pont de Normandie was one of them.
Foster, a well-known British architect, was regarded as one of his generation's most outstanding architects. He received the Pritzker Architecture Prize, also known as the Nobel Prize in Architecture, in 1999.
A brilliant structural engineer and an imaginative architect were thought to make the ideal team to complete the challenging project. The idea for the Millau Viaduct was developed in the late 1990s, and work on it started in 2001. The construction took three years to be completed.
President Jacques Chirac officially opened the Millau Bridge on Dec. 14, 2004.
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