Millau Viaduct
Subscribe now to instantly view this image
Subscribe to the Architects’ Journal (AJ) for instant access to the AJ Buildings Library, an online database of nearly 2,000 exemplar buildings in photographs, plans, elevations and details.
Already a subscriber? Sign in
Nigel Young Download Original
Crucial transport link in the Paris to Barcelona motorway across a valley in south-west France
Designed with engineer Michel Virlogeux, the 2.46km-long cable-stayed bridge has the highest elevated roadway in the world. Supported on seven concrete piers of varying height, its deck is 270m above the River Tarn.
Each of its sections spans 342 metres and its columns range in height from 75 metres to 245 metres, with the masts rising a further 90 metres above the road deck.
A three per cent slope from south to north encourages drainage, while a gentle curve as the bridge approaches the northern plateau helps wind resistance. But both these factors work aesthetically too, accentuating the sense that the structure is tailored precisely to a specific site.
This marriage of the functional and aesthetic continues in the tapered concrete piers, which bifurcate towards the top to cope better with thermal movement in the steel deck (trapezoidal in section), while making the supports seem more slender.
Data
- Begun: Oct 2001
- Completed: 2004
- Floor area: 78,720m2
- Sector: Transport
- Total cost: £220M
- Address: Millau Viaduct, Millau, 12145, France
Professional Team 
- Architect: Foster + Partners
- Project architect: Norman Foster
- Client: French Ministry of Equipment, Transport, Housing, Tourism and Sea
- Engineering Concept: Michel Virlogeux
- Associated Architect: Chapelet-Defol-Mousseigne
- Landscape architect: Agence TER
- Main contractor: CEVM
- Project manager: CEVM