Bridge in Millau, France. Millau Viaduct (France) - the world's highest transport bridge: description, dimensions

The longest suspension bridge in the world, the highest highway, the highest 343 meter bridge on earth

Construction of the Millau Viaduct

The metal span structure of the viaduct, very light compared to its total weight, approximately 36,000 tons, has a length of 2,460 m and a width of 32 m. The canvas has 8 spans.
The six central spans are 342 m long each, and the two outer spans are 204 m long.

The canvas consists of 173 central caissons, the real spine of the structure, to which the side decks and outer caissons are tightly soldered.
The central caissons consist of sections 4 m wide and 15-22 m long with a total weight of 90 tons. The road surface is shaped like an inverted airplane wing so that it is less exposed to wind.

Diameter of the Millau Viaduct - website

Supports and foundations

Each support stands in four wells 15 m deep and 5 m in diameter

Height of supports in (m) of the Millau Viaduct

Pylons

Seven pylons, 88.92 m high and weighing about 700 tons, stand on supports. 11 pairs of cables are attached to each of them, supporting the road surface.

Guys

The cables were developed by the Freyssinet community (Fr. Preuwsuets). Each rope received triple protection against corrosion (galvanization, coating with protective wax and an extruded polyethylene sheath). The outer shell of the cables along the entire length is equipped with ridges in the form of a double helix. The purpose of this device is to avoid dripping water along the cables, which in the event of strong winds can cause vibration of the cables, which will affect the stability of the viaduct.

Durable canvas covering

To resist deformation of the metal sheet due to vehicle traffic, the Appia research group (French Appia) has developed a special asphalt concrete based on mineral resin.

Soft enough to accommodate the deformation of steel without cracking, it must, however, have sufficient resistance to meet road criteria (wear, density, structure, adhesion, resistance to deformation - grooves in the road, etc.) . It took two years of research to find the "perfect formula."

Viaduct electrical equipment

The electrical equipment of the viaduct is proportional to the entire huge structure. Thus, 30 km of high voltage cables, 20 km of fiber optic cables, 10 km of low voltage cables were laid along the bridge and 357 telephone connections were created so that repair teams could communicate with each other and have contact with the control center, wherever they were - on the road surface , supports or pylons.

As for the equipment, the viaduct, of course, was not left without various devices. Supports, canvas, pylons and cables are all equipped with a large number of sensors. They were designed to monitor the slightest movement of the viaduct and evaluate its stability after wear and tear.

Anemometers, accelerometers, inclinometers, temperature sensors, etc. - they are all included in the set of measuring instruments used.
12 fiber-optic strain gauges were placed at the base of support P2. Being the highest support of the viaduct, it is subject to the heaviest load.

These sensors detect any shift from the norm by a micrometer. Other strain gauges, already electric, were placed on the tops of supports P2 and P7. This equipment is capable of making up to 100 measurements per second.

In strong winds they allow constant monitoring of the viaduct's response to exceptional weather conditions. Accelerometers located at strategic points on the road surface monitor vibrational phenomena that can affect metal structures. The location of the canvas at the level of the abutments is observed down to a millimeter.

As for the cables, they are also equipped with equipment, and their aging is carefully monitored. Moreover, two piezoelectric sensors collect a variety of data related to traffic: vehicle weight, average speed, traffic density, etc. This system is able to distinguish between 14 different types of vehicles.

The collected information is transmitted via an Ethernet-type network to a computer in the information room of the viaduct operation building located near the toll gate.

Road toll

The rate of toll charged by the concessionaire is set by him annually in accordance with current legislation within the framework of five-year plans, which are approved by the two parties to the agreement.

• 5.4 € for passenger cars (7.00 € in July and August);
• 8.1 € for intermediate types of transport (10.6 € in July and August);
• 19.4 € for two-axle machines exceeding 3.5 tons (all year);
• 26.4 € for three-axis machines (all year);
• 3.5 € for motorcycles (all year).

Construction of the Millau Viaduct (chronology)

• Construction duration: 38 months
• October 16, 2001: Construction begins.
• December 14, 2001: Laying of the “first stone”.
• January 2002: Laying the foundation of the supports.
• March 2002: Installation of the C8 abutment begins.
• June 2002: Start of installation of supports - completion of installation of abutment C8.
• July 2002: Installation of temporary supports begins.
• August 2002: Start of installation of CO abutment.
• September 2002: Bridge deck installation begins.
• November 2002: Pillar P2 (the highest) exceeded 100 m.
• February 25, 2003: Beginning of road construction.
• 28 May 2003: Pillar P2 reached a height of 180 m, thus becoming the tallest pillar in the world (previously the world record holder was the Kochertal Viaduct). This record was broken again at the end of the year by a tower 245 m high.
• July 3, 2003: Beginning of the L3 alignment process.
• The aiming was completed after 60 hours. Towards the end of the installation, the roadway was temporarily attached to the support to ensure its stability in the event of a storm with wind speeds of 185 km/h.
• August 25-26, 2003: Landing of section L4. The road surface was transferred from support P7 to temporary support Pi6.
• August 29, 2003: Joining the roadway along the line of the intermediate support Pi6 after covering 171 m. The road surface was raised to a height of 2.4 m to allow it to pass over the temporary support Pi6. After this, Freyssinet temporarily placed the RZ pylon on the P7 support.
• 12 September 2003: Second installation (L2) of 114m of metal bridge deck on the north side of the viaduct. The first sighting (L1) was made on the ground quite close to the level of the abutment, allowing the procedure and technical devices to be tested.
• November 20, 2003: Completion of construction of supports.
• March 26, 2004: Landing of section L10 from the south side. The road surface has reached the RZ support.
• On the night of April 4-5, 2004: The metal flooring was brought to support P2, the highest in the world. The aiming operation was slowed down by wind and fog, which interfered with laser aiming. By this time, 1,947 m of road surface had been completed.
• April 29, 2004: Completion of road construction on the north side. The edge of the roadway was in line with the Tarn. It remained to make two more leads from the south side.
• May 28, 2004: The north and south tracks are a few centimeters apart. The joining of these parts was officially announced (in fact, the final joining was completed over the next few days).
• End of July 2004: The lifting of the pylons is completed.
• September 21 - 25, 2004: Start of paving by the Appia group. For this purpose, 9,000 tons of special asphalt concrete and 1,000 tons of ordinary asphalt concrete were used in the center.
• November 2004: Completed dismantling of temporary supports.
• November 17, 2004: Start of design verification (920 t total load).
• December 14, 2004: Inauguration of the viaduct by French President Jacques Chirac.
• December 16, 2004, 9:00: The viaduct opened to traffic ahead of schedule (the viaduct was originally scheduled to open on January 10, 2005).
• December 18, 2004: Completion of final finishing work.

There is probably no such person who has not seen or heard about this unique and beautiful bridge, but I don’t have it in all over the world. To make it of some interest to you, let's approach the topic from the other side, let's look at the process of building this structure.

One of the main wonders of the industrial world of France is the world-famous Millau Bridge, which holds several records. Thanks to this gigantic bridge, stretching over a huge river valley called Tar, uninterrupted and high-speed travel is ensured from the capital of France, Paris, to the small town of Beziers. Many tourists who come to see this highest bridge in the world often ask the question: “Why was it necessary to build such an expensive and technically complex bridge that leads from Paris to the very small city of Beziers?” The thing is that it is in Beziers that there is a huge number of educational institutions, elite private schools and a retraining center for highly qualified specialists.

A huge number of Parisians, as well as residents from other large cities in France, who are attracted by the elitism of education in Beziers, come to study at these schools and colleges. In addition, the town of Beziers is located just 12 kilometers from the picturesque coast of the warm Mediterranean Sea, which, of course, in turn, also attracts tens of thousands of tourists from all over the globe every year.

The Millau Bridge, which can rightfully be considered the pinnacle of the mastery of engineers and architects, is popular among travelers as one of the most interesting attractions in France. Firstly, it offers a magnificent view of the Tar River valley, and secondly, it is one of the favorite objects for modern photographers. Photos of the Millau Bridge, which is almost two and a half kilometers long and 32 meters wide, made by the best and most respected photographers, decorate numerous office buildings and hotels not only in France, but throughout the Old World.

The bridge is a particularly fantastic sight when clouds gather underneath it: at this moment it seems as if the viaduct is hanging in the air and does not have a single support under it. The height of the bridge above the ground at its highest point is just over 270 meters. The Millau Viaduct was built with the sole purpose of relieving congestion on the national route number 9, which constantly experienced huge traffic jams during the season, and tourists traveling around France, as well as truck drivers, were forced to stand in traffic jams for hours.

As mentioned above, the bridge, which is part of the A75 highway, connects Paris and the city of Beziers, but it is quite often used by motorists traveling to the capital of the country from Spain and southern France. It is worth noting that travel through the viaduct, which “floats above the clouds,” is paid, which does not in any way affect its popularity among vehicle drivers and guests of the country who come to see one of the most amazing wonders of the industrial world.

The legendary Millau Viaduct, which every self-respecting bridge builder knows about and which is considered an example of technological progress for all mankind, was designed by Michel Virlajo and the brilliant architect Norman Foster. For those who are not familiar with the works of Norman Foster, it should be clarified that this talented English engineer, promoted to knights and barons by the Queen of Great Britain, not only recreated, but also introduced a number of new unique solutions to the Berlin Reichstag. It was thanks to his painstaking work and precisely calibrated calculations that the main symbol of the country was literally revived from the ashes in Germany. Naturally, Norman Foster's talent made the Millau Viaduct one of the modern wonders of the world.

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In addition to the British architect, a group called Eiffage, which includes the famous Eiffel workshop, which designed and built one of the main attractions of Paris, was involved in the work on the creation of the highest transport route in the world. By and large, the talent of Eiffel and the employees from his bureau created not only the “calling card” of Paris, but of the whole of France. In a well-coordinated tandem, the Eiffage group, Norman Foster and Michel Virlajo developed the Millau Bridge, which was inaugurated on December 14, 2004.

Already 2 days after the festive event, the first cars drove along the final link of the A75 highway. An interesting fact is that the first stone in the construction of the viaduct was laid on December 14, 2001, and the start of large-scale construction started on December 16, 2001. Apparently, the builders planned to coincide the opening date of the bridge with the start date of its construction.

Despite a group of the best architects and engineers, building the highest road bridge in the world was extremely difficult. By and large, there are two more bridges on our planet that are located above Millau above the surface of the earth: the Royal Gorge Bridge in the USA in Colorado (321 meters above the ground) and the Chinese bridge connecting the two banks of the Siduhe River. True, in the first case we are talking about a bridge that can only be crossed by pedestrians, and in the second, about a viaduct, the supports of which are located on a plateau and their height cannot be compared with the supports and pylons of Millau. It is for these reasons that the French Millau Bridge is considered the most complex in its design and the highest road bridge in the world.

Some supports of the A75 terminal link are located at the bottom of the gorge that separates the “red plateau” and the Lazarka plateau. To make the bridge completely safe, French engineers had to separately develop each support: almost all of them are of different diameters and clearly designed for a specific load. The width of the largest bridge support reaches almost 25 meters at its base. True, in the place where the support connects to the road surface, its diameter noticeably narrows.

The workers and architects who developed the project had to face a whole host of difficulties during construction work. Firstly, it was necessary to strengthen the places in the gorge where the supports were located, and secondly, it was necessary to spend quite a lot of time transporting individual parts of the canvas, its supports and pylons. Just imagine that the main support of the bridge consists of 16 sections, the weight of each of them is 2,300 (!) tons. Looking ahead a little, I would like to note that this is one of the records that belongs to the Millau Bridge.

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Naturally, there are no vehicles in the world that could deliver such massive parts of the Millau Bridge supports. For this reason, the architects decided to deliver parts of the supports in parts (if one can put it that way, of course). Each piece weighed about 60 tons. It is quite difficult to even imagine how much time it took the builders just to deliver 7 (!) supports to the bridge construction site, and this does not even take into account the fact that each support has a pylon just over 87 meters high, to which 11 pairs of high-strength cables are attached.

However, delivering construction materials to the site is not the only difficulty the engineers faced. The thing is that the Tar River valley has always been distinguished by a harsh climate: warmth, quickly giving way to piercing cold, sharp gusts of wind, steep cliffs - only a small part of what the builders of the majestic French viaduct had to overcome. There is official evidence that the development of the project and numerous studies lasted just over 10 (!) years. Work on the construction of the Millau Bridge was completed in such difficult conditions, one might even say, in record time: it took builders and other services 4 years to bring to life the plans of Norman Foster, Michel Virlajo and architects from the Eiffage group.

The road surface of the Millau Bridge, like its project itself, is innovative: in order to avoid deformation of expensive metal surfaces, which will be quite difficult to repair in the future, scientists had to invent an ultra-modern asphalt concrete formula. The metal sheets are quite strong, but their weight, relative to the entire gigantic structure, can be called insignificant (“only” 36,000 tons). The coating had to protect the canvas from deformation (be “soft”) and at the same time meet all the requirements of European standards (resist deformation, be used for a long time without repair and prevent so-called “shifts”). It is simply impossible for even the most cutting-edge technologies to solve this problem in a short time. During the construction of the bridge, the composition of the roadway was developed for almost three years. By the way, the asphalt concrete of the Millau Bridge is recognized as unique of its kind.

The Millau Bridge - harsh criticism

Despite the lengthy development of the plan, well-calibrated solutions and big names of architects, the construction of the viaduct initially aroused sharp criticism. By and large, in France any construction is subject to sharp criticism, just remember the Sacré-Coeur Basilica and the Eiffel Tower in Paris. Opponents of the construction of the viaduct said that the bridge would be unreliable due to shifts at the bottom of the gorge; will never pay off; the use of such technologies on the A75 highway is unjustified; the bypass route will reduce the flow of tourists to the city of Millau. This is only a small part of the slogans that ardent opponents of the construction of a new viaduct addressed to the government. They were listened to and every negative call to the public was answered with an authoritative explanation. To be fair, we note that the opponents, which included influential associations, did not calm down and continued their protests almost the entire time the bridge was being built.

The Millau Bridge is a revolutionary solution

The construction of the most famous French viaduct, according to the most conservative estimates, took at least 400 million euros. Naturally, this money had to be returned, so travel on the viaduct was made to be paid: the point where you can pay for “a journey through the miracle of modern industry” is located near the small village of Saint-Germain. More than 20 million euros were spent on its construction alone. At the toll station there is a huge covered canopy, the construction of which took 53 giant beams. During the “season”, when the flow of cars along the viaduct sharply increases, additional lanes are used, of which, by the way, there are 16 at the “passport”. At this point there is also an electronic system that allows you to track the number of cars on the bridge and their tonnage. By the way, the Eiffage concession will last only 78 years, which is exactly how long the state allocated to the group to cover its expenses.

Most likely, Eiffage will not even be able to recoup all the funds spent on construction. However, such unfavorable financial forecasts are viewed with a grain of irony within the group. Firstly, Eiffage is far from poor, and secondly, the Millau Bridge served as further proof of the genius of its specialists. By the way, talk that the companies that built the bridge will lose money is nothing more than fiction. Yes, the bridge was not built at the expense of the state, but after 78 years, if the bridge does not bring profit to the group, France will be obliged to pay the losses. But if “Eiffage manages to earn 375 million euros on the Millau Viaduct earlier than in 78 years, the bridge will become the property of the country free of charge. The concession period will last, as mentioned above, 78 years (until 2045), but the group of companies gave a guarantee for their majestic bridge for 120 years.

Driving along the four-lane highway of the Millau Viaduct does not cost exorbitant sums, as many might think. Driving a passenger car along the viaduct, the height of the main support of which is higher than the Eiffel Tower itself (!) and only slightly lower than the Empire State Building, will cost only 6 euros (in the “season” 7.70 euros). But for two-axle cargo vehicles, the fare will be 21.30 euros; for three-axles - almost 29 euros. Even motorcyclists and people traveling on the viaduct on scooters have to pay: the cost of traveling along the Millau Bridge will cost them 3 euros and 90 euro cents.

The Millau Viaduct Bridge comprises an eight-span steel roadway supported by eight steel pillars. The weight of the roadway is 36,000 tons, width - 32 meters, length - 2460 meters, depth - 4.2 meters. The length of all six central spans is 342 meters, and the two outer ones are 204 meters long each. The road has a slight gradient of 3%, descends from the south side to the north, its curvature with a radius of 20 km in order to give drivers a better view. Traffic flows in two lanes in all directions. The height of the columns ranges from 77 to 246 m, the diameter of one of the longest columns is 24.5 meters at the base, and at the road surface - eleven meters. Each base has sixteen sections. One section weighs 2 thousand 230 tons. The sections were assembled on site from individual parts. Each individual part of the section has a mass of sixty tons, seventeen meters in length and four meters in width. Each support must support pylons having a height of 97 meters. First, the columns were assembled, which were together with temporary supports, then parts of the canvas were moved along the supports using jacks. The jacks were controlled from satellites. The canvases moved six hundred millimeters in four minutes.

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The Millau Viaduct is the highest bridge on the planet; the road surface here is located at an altitude of 270 meters above the ground. The height of the bridge supports is 244.96 m, and the length of the largest mast is 343 m. The structure is based on 36,000 tons of steel. Thus, the most beautiful bridge broke three records at once and earned an award from the International Association of Road and Bridge Construction.

Millau Viaduct is located in the south of France (near the city of Millau) and passes over the Tarn River valley. The overpass is part of the A 75 route and leads from Paris to the Mediterranean Sea, providing the shortest and fastest route to the city of Beziers.

Travel on a shortened route is paid and ranges from 4.6 to 33 euros, depending on the type of transport and time of year. A trip by car costs from 9.1 to 7.3 euros.

The total length of the Millau Bridge is 2460 m, and the width is 32 m - four lanes. The viaduct is made in the shape of a semicircle with a radius of 20 km. The structure is supported by seven concrete pillars, the highest of which is almost 20 meters higher than the famous Eiffel Tower. The cars are protected from the wind by a special durable screen. It is allowed to move along the bridge at a speed of no higher than 90 km per hour.

Discussions about the need to build a shortcut in the Millau region began in 1987. Already at that time, the roads leading to the sea were busy. In 1996, the final decision was made to build a cable-stayed bridge with several spans, and in 2001, architects Norman Foster and Michel Virlajo began turning their project into reality.

Three years later, in December 2004, the viaduct was put into operation. In total, about 400 million euros were spent on construction.

Despite the rapid construction, the Millau Bridge meets the strictest safety requirements. Each support was developed separately, taking into account not only the load, but also the installation location in difficult terrain.

A special road surface was used for the coating - a specially developed asphalt concrete composition that is resistant to deformation and does not require frequent repairs, which is difficult to carry out in the conditions of a viaduct.

Engineers have set the minimum lifespan of the Millau Viaduct - 120 years. The structure is under constant monitoring and undergoes scheduled maintenance. Sensors are installed to monitor the condition of the viaduct. Engineers constantly monitor sensor signals.

The appearance of the bridge is admirable - stylish and modern, soaring over the beautiful Tarn Valley. It is already considered one of the wonders of the world. Photos of the viaduct adorn souvenirs, and tourists specially come here to appreciate the scale of the structure with their own eyes and admire the beautiful landscapes opening from the highest bridge in the world.