Millau Viaduct - The Tallest Bridge in the World
The Millau Viaduct is the
world's tallest and longest cable bridge in the world. An absolute engineering
wonder, Millau Viaduct has supporting pylons which are even taller than the
great Eiffel tower. Find out more of such amazing facts about this great civil
engineering wonder in the article inside
Introduction
Sometimes a civil engineering
wonder is so “out of the world" that one needs to see it to actually
believe its existence. Millau Viaduct is one such spectacular engineering
wonder that has inspired civil engineers around the world to go for the most
impossible of the things.
Spanning 2.4 kilometers in length, Millau Viaduct is the highest
cable stayed road bridge that spans the valley of river Tarn near Millau,
connecting the A75 highway from Paris to Barcelona. Moreover, Millau Viaduct is
the tallest bridge ever built, measuring two hundred and forty five meters
above the ground level.
Salient features
Delicate and artistic in
looks, Millau Viaduct facilitates its user to complete the journey from one end
to other in less than one minute. This highest bridge has been built by the
famous British Architect Lord Norman Foster and measures to be taller than the
Eiffel Tower.
Made within the record time of
thirty-nine months, Millau Viaduct has total of four lanes, two for each
direction. The bridge was built by Eiffage builders
with a cost of four hundred Euros. Moreover, the bridge also consists of
eighteen cameras located at various locations and six pairs of emergency
telephones at every five hundred meters. The construction process involved
approximately five hundred workers working simultaneously on the project.
Construction
Building a bridge with such
huge dimensions was not an easy task. Moreover, in order to keep the landscape
intact, Millau Viaduct was needed to be as delicate and transparent in looks as
possible. For this the bridge was given a peculiar design using the least
amount of materials, which also made the over all construction
less costly.
The bridge is supported
by seven concrete pylons making eight equal sections. Each of this section
measures three hundred and forty two meters in length with the two ends sections
measuring two hundred and four meters each. The height of the pylons ranges
from seventy five meters to two hundred and thirty five meters. The pylons are
made with reinforced concrete and have “A" shaped frame to accommodate the
expansion and contraction of the steel deck/road. The splitting of the concrete
pylons into thin columns makes the structure more flexible and transparent. The
A shaped concrete pylons are also used to sling the multi span cables to
provide support to the deck road, which is made from steel rather than
conventional concrete.
The deck has been constructed
using advanced high grade steel and was pre constructed in two thousand pieces
at the bridge builder’s factory. Hydraulic devices from Enerpac were used for lifting and shifting the decks
and piers. A total of nineteen thousand tones of steel
were used for this process. Moreover, on the both the sides of the bridge a 3
meter wide emergency lane has been provided to prevent the users from seeing
the valley from the bridge.
In order to prevent the bridge
from harmful effects of the winds, side screeners are attached on both the
sides. The side screeners reduce the wind speed by around fifty percent,
protecting not only the bridge but also the drivers. Moreover, the bridge is
not straight but has a gentle curve to prevent the drivers from getting the
‘flotation’ feeling due to high speeds.
On a cloudy day the bridge
completely blends with the landscape, satisfying one of the several spectacular
traits it has been built with. Currently the longest and bridge in the world,
Millau Viaduct has set new standards in designing and construction of bridges,
which somehow still seems impossible to achieve.
