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Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Millau Viaduct - the tallest vehicular bridge in the world

I got an email with the heading of the 'tallest bridge in the world' and the attached presentation was very interesting. I then did a further search in Wikipedia, and found this entry.
Some brief highlights:
The Millau Viaduct (French: le Viaduc de Millau) is a large 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 mast's summit at 343 metres (1,125 ft) — slightly taller than the Eiffel Tower and only 38 m (125 ft) shorter than the Empire State Building. It was formally dedicated on 14 December 2004 and opened to traffic two days later.
The bridge’s construction broke three world records:
* The highest pylons in the world: pylons P2 and P3, 244.96 and 221.05 metres in height respectively, broke the French record previously held by the Tulle and Verrières Viaducts (141 m), and the world record previously held by the Kochertal Viaduct (Germany), which is 181 metres at its highest;
* The highest mast in the world: the mast atop pylon P2 peaks at 343 m.
* The highest road bridge deck in the world, 270 m above the Tarn River at its highest point. It is nearly twice as tall as the previous tallest vehicular bridge in Europe, the Europabrücke in Austria. It is slightly higher than the New River Gorge Bridge in West Virginia in the United States, which is 267 m above the New River. Only the bridge deck of the Royal Gorge Bridge in Colorado, United States (mainly a pedestrian bridge over the Arkansas River, occasionally also used by motor vehicles) is higher with 321 m, and is considered the highest bridge in the world.

Millau Viaduct - the tallest vehicular bridge in the world

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