There are many amazing structures in the world that cause surprise and delight even in the most inexperienced in the engineering questions of the man in the street. Today, we suggest you take a virtual walk through the highest bridge in the world. So, arrange for more convenient - our way lies in France , where the viaduct of Millau is located - the highest suspension bridge on the planet.
| | | |
The Millau Bridge can be called without false modesty one of the engineering wonders of the world, so complex and verified to the smallest detail is its design. It is located above the valley of the river Tar and solves the problem of safe passage from the French capital to a small town Beziers. In addition, it is precisely on the highest bridge in Europe that the shortest and most convenient road passes from France to Spain .
| | | |
It should be noted that the Millau viaduct not only brilliantly copes with its direct purpose and provides the convenience of movement, but also striking beauty of its design. It is not by chance that photos of this bridge, made by famous photographers from all over the world, decorate offices and hotels of the countries of the Old and New World. Especially stunning is the Millau viaduct when the fog rises from the bottom of the valley, hiding its supports. At the same time, there is a complete illusion that the entire two kilometer mahina just hovers in the air.
| | | |
The authorship of the Miho viaduct project belongs to two outstanding architects - Norman Foster and Michel Virlajo. Their talent and joint efforts allowed them to realize this project, which has no analogues in the whole world, in a rather short time. The grand opening of the bridge took place on December 14, 2004, just four years after the construction began. And already two days after putting into operation on the bridge, active traffic began.
| | | |
Despite the fact that the project team included the best engineering minds of France, it was quite difficult to build the highest automobile bridge on the planet. For example, to ensure the absolute security of the entire structure, developers had to separately design the design of each of the supports. As a result, all the supports turned out to be of different diameters and are designed for a strictly defined load. In addition, it was necessary to solve the problems associated with the transportation and installation of all components of the bridge, and in fact the main one consists of 16 sections of 2.3 tons each. A lot of trouble brought architects and the changeable severe climate of the Tar River valley, all the whims of which also needed to be taken into account in the design.
| | | |
To minimize the costly repairs of the road surface and as long as possible to save from the destruction of the foundation of the bridge, it was necessary to develop an innovative formula of asphalt concrete, characterized by increased resistance and extended service life. The work on the development of the new coating was carried out for three years and finally was crowned with success. Today, the coating of the Millau Bridge has no analogues throughout the world.
| | | |
Such a grandiose construction required considerable financial expenses. According to the most conservative estimates, the Millau viaduct cost about half a billion euros. Only to erect a special point of payment for the bridge was spent about 20 million euros. And it's not surprising - at the checkpoint there are special equipment that allows you to track the number of cars on the bridge and determine the load on it at any time. Despite the impressive cost of construction, the cost of traveling through the bridge is within reasonable limits. For example, the owner of the scooter travel costs 3.9 euros, the owner of the car - from 6 to 7.7 euros, and the driver of a three-axle truck - at 29 euros.