Peter-Vincent Schuld

A few more weeks and many of you will be going on holiday by car again. Cars and caravans packed on the French motorways to the south. Arrive at your destination as soon as possible. Are you thinking about your safety and that of other motorists? Anyway, enough fatherly advice. Although? By the way, do you know where you are driving and what the story is of the places you pass? I can imagine that until you arrive at your destination, you may not give a damn. Or is it? Don’t you ever have that when you pass a place, that you say; “Gosh, I’ve seen that on television” or “I’ve read about that”.

Some of the things that are being built are spectacular and the attention is limited to the moment of construction and the opening, after which it becomes part of the usual everyday life.
That’s why this time we’re taking you to the south of France. To Millau to be precise. At the town of about 21,000 inhabitants, two rivers meet; the Dourbie and the Tam. Two rivers coming together, in itself not earth-shattering or special. But the Tam River and the valley through which it flows created a problem. It’s a serious problem. It was not easy to get from one side to the other of the mountains where this river flows through the valley.

The increasing traffic had to make bend after bend and then drive south or north through the town of Millau, depending on the desired direction of travel, Millau and the river Tam created a bottleneck for the through traffic there in the French department of Aveyron.

In order to relieve both the picturesque Millau and the E25 A7/A6 (Route du Soleil) further away, it was decided to build a gigantic cable-stayed bridge whose bridge pillars are among the highest in the world in terms of construction height.

The highest pillar of the bridge is even 19 meters higher than the Eiffel Tower. A technical and architectural tour de force. A length of almost 2.5 kilometers and an altitude of 343 meters. Just stand there. A nice detail is that the bridge was built by the construction and concession company Eiffage, which also built the Eiffel Tower. Eiffage is also responsible for the toll operation of the bridge, which cost around 414 million euros, including the toll gates. This bridge was completed in 2004 and was festively opened by then President Jacques Chirac.

The Millau Viaduct is one of France’s most important infrastructure projects with a remarkable touch. The steel bridge deck of no less than 36,000 tonnes expands when it heats and contracts slightly when it is cold. Unfortunately, in the past, the construction of these enormous bridges with great heights has often resulted in casualties among the workers. To prevent this kind of sad event, it was decided to have yards on the north and south sides of the bridge where the bridge was assembled. The bridge parts, each piece unique, were produced at the Eiffage factory in Fos-sur-Mer and transported by road to Millau.

For 14 years now, you have been able to drive on this tour de force, which is part of the A75/E11 and has become an important artery for French national and international traffic. The next time, when you may drive over this bridge, you will know a bit about the background of the enormous structure that your wheels will drive over in a short time.