The Hindu : International : French bridge is an engineering feat

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Dec 15, 2004

International

International

French bridge is an engineering feat

By Vaiju Naravane

PARIS, DEC. 14. Its seven pillars rising gracefully to a height of 1000 feet and more, the bridge outside the French town of Millau, inaugurated today by the French President Jacques Chirac, appears to float gracefully above the mist and the fog that obscure the rest of the Tarn valley. Designed by renowned British architect Sir Norman Foster, the world's tallest and longest bridge has been described my many as an astounding engineering feat.

Motorists will be suspended at a height of almost 300 metres as they drive across the bridge towards southern France with the gurgling waters of the Tarn river below them — a sheer drop of a thousand feet.

Like a taut thread pierced by a line of needles, the silhouette of the bridge dominates the countryside for miles around. It has been praised as a classic marriage of aesthetics and science, appearing to float on the fog like a mysterious sailing ship or an ethereal butterfly.

`Must fuse with nature'

"A work of man must fuse with nature. The pillars had to look almost organic, like they had grown from the earth," said Mr. Foster, whose other works include the renovation of the Reichstag in Berlin and Chek Lap Kok airport in Hong Kong.

"The bridge could not look as if it had been tacked onto the scenery. It had to rise out of the landscape with the delicacy of a butterfly."

Mr. Chirac inaugurated the bridge in the presence of over 1000 personalities, including the architect. "The Millau viaduct takes its place among our most shining works of civil engineering. It brilliantly embodies the verve of our research and technology. The French people are rightly proud of the feats accomplished here — feats which speak for France. A modern, enterprising, successful France that invests in its future," Mr. Chirac said. The bridge stretches for 2.46 km between two plateaux in the Massif Central mountain range and is expected to remove one of the country's most notorious motorway bottlenecks.Unusually for such a large infrastructure project in France, the bridge's 390 million euro ($520 million) cost was financed entirely by the private sector, with the construction giant Eiffage (which built the Eiffel Tower), getting the right to collect tolls for 75 years in return.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

International

News Update

Stories in this Section

Another assault on Green Zone

French bridge is an engineering feat

Islamists kill four in Russia

It's a witch-hunt: Kojo Annan

Suicide attack

`Aznar regime lied on Madrid blasts'

Saddam aides' trial next week

Turkey not for second-class status

Arab religious heads mull HIV fight

McCain has no confidence in Rumsfeld

A flashy car for Swazi king

Talks on nuclear CBMs begin

Joint survey of boundary pillars in Sir Creek planned