Like Heights?

The Millau Viaduct is a cable-stayed road-bridge that spans the valley of the River Tarn near Millau in southern France. It is the tallest vehicular bridge in the world, with one pier's summit at 1,125 ft. - slightly taller than the Eiffel Tower and only 125 ft. shorter than the Empire State Building. It was formally dedicated on December 14 2004 and opened to traffic two days later.
It consists of an eight-span steel roadway supported by seven concrete piers. The roadway weighs 36,000 tons and is 1 ½ miles long, measuring 105 ft. wide by 14 feet deep. The six central spans each measure 1122 ft. with the two outer spans measuring 670 ft. It carries two lanes of traffic in each direction.
The piers range in height from 252 to 807 ft., and taper in their longitudinal section from 80 ft. at the base to 36 ft. at the deck. Each pier is composed of 16 framework sections, each weighing 2,230 tons. These sections were assembled on site from pieces of 60 tons, 13 ft. wide and 56 ft. long. The piers each support 318 ft. tall pylons. The piers were assembled first, together with some temporary supports, before the decks were slid out across the piers by satellite-guided hydraulic rams that moved the deck 2 ft. every 4 minutes.
It is the highest vehicular bridge measured from the roadway elevation. Its deck, about 886 ft. above the Tarn, is slightly higher than the New River Gorge Bridge in West Virginia in the United States, which is 876 ft. above the New River. The Royal Gorge Bridge in Colorado, United States has a deck considerably higher than either, at 1053 ft. above the Arkansas River.
The bridge's construction cost up to $536,361,597. The builders, Eiffage, financed the construction in return for a concession to collect the tolls for 75 years, until 2080. However, if the concession is very profitable, the French government can assume control of the bridge in 2044.
The project required about 4484962 cubic ft. of concrete; 19,000 metric tons of steel for the reinforced concrete; and 5,000 metric tons of pre-stressed steel for the cables and shrouds. The builder claims that the bridge's lifetime will be at least 120 years.



3 comments:
wo-oo-oww! Those are some amazing pics- I'm not too good with heights, I think I'd be petrified that the bridge would collaspe and I'd plungde to my death- yikes! It looks like a pretty view at least- something nice to look at whilst falling to my doom, so that's ok. :)
you always find the coolest stuff to post! hope you and your hubbie and "babies" are doing good. we miss yall!
I'm with Kate. Add that bridge to the list of things I don't want to climb out on that already includes that Grand Canyon glass floor deathtrap Indians' revenge thingy.
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