Buy essay on The Millau Viaduct

As a matter of fact, Millau Viaduct – is a bridge construction cabling system, which passes through the valley of the Tarn River near Millau village in the southern part of France. The viaduct is the one of the most important link of the route A75, which was created to provide high-speed traffic from Paris to Beziers. It should be noted that before the creation of viaduct, traffic was carried on the national highway number 9, passing near Millau, and led to heavy congestion at the end of the summer season. The authors of the project were French engineer Michel Virlozho and an English architect Norman Foster. The viaduct was created under a concession agreement of French government and “Eiffage Group”; validity of concession agreement – 78 years, as stated in High in the South of France. It should be mentioned that the viaduct crosses the Tarn River valley at its lowest point, linking the plateau Larzaka with a Red plateau. The viaduct was finished on December 14, 2004, and regular traffic on it has begun on December 16, 2004, as described in Highest and longest: Viaduct de Millau.
Further, I would like to provide the summary of the project. As a fact, the viaduct is a cable-stayed bridge with length of 2460 m. It crosses the valley at an altitude of Tarn about 270 m above the ground. Roadway width is 32 m and has two lanes in each direction with two backup lines. The viaduct stands on a seven towers, each surmounted by pylons of 87 m high. It is important to mention that the radius of curvature of 20 km allows cars to move in a more accurate trajectory than if it were a straight line, and gives the illusion of the endless of viaduct. Statistics: Length: 2460 m; width: 32 m; maximum height: 343 m; the maximum height of the roadway: 270 m above the ground; the height of pylons: 88.92 m. Moreover, the weight of steel construction is 36 000 tones, which is in four times bigger than the Eiffel Tower; volume of concrete: 85 000 m³, which is 206 000 tones; construction cost: EUR 400 million. The warranty for the construction is 120 years. Each pillar stands in the four wells of a depth of 15 m and a diameter of 5 m, as stated in Construction of the Millau Viaduct.
Without any doubts, the importance of Millau viaduct is hard to overestimate. This site fits into the overall scheme to create a fourth axis of the road between the north and the south of France. Its construction began in 1975 and ended in 2004 with the commissioning of the Millau viaduct. The new highway A75, in addition to the highway A71 between Orleans and Clermont-Ferrand has opened a fourth way across France. First of all, the viaduct allows to unload the valley of the Rhone river, which is actively used by trucks (as well as the path to the north of Europe from Spain and Portugal). Moreover, the viaduct became the most direct and most economical route, respectively (in time and fuel costs) from all four roads. Also, it complements the French road network, and, in more global scale, makes a transit link between Northern Europe and the Paris region on the one hand and Spain and the east coast of the Mediterranean Sea on the other.