← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · xmetalhead
Thread ID: 15967 | Posts: 6 | Started: 2004-12-14
2004-12-14 14:56 | User Profile
[I]Can't wait to see it in person next year. At least someone's building nice looking and useful things somewhere in the world.[/I]
[B][SIZE=3]France shows off tallest bridge[/SIZE][/B]
[IMG]http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/40625000/jpg/_40625309_bridge_afp300body.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/03/europe_the_millau_bridge/img/laun.jpg[/IMG]
The world's highest road bridge has been inaugurated in southern France by President Jacques Chirac. The Millau bridge over the River Tarn in the Massif Central mountains is more than 300m (984ft) high - taller even than the country's Eiffel Tower.
The bridge, which opens to traffic on Thursday, was built to clear summer traffic jams around the town.
The BBC's Paris correspondent, Caroline Wyatt, says the bridge is one of the most breathtaking ever built.
She says that with its concrete and steel pillars soaring high above the morning fog in the Tarn Valley, the construction makes a spectacular sight.
[B]'Delicacy of a butterfly' [/B]
Seven slender piers support the roadway, rising into seven graceful pylons bound to the bridge with what look like cobwebs of steel, our correspondent says.
"The bridge is just on the clouds," Millau Mayor Jacques Godfrain told the BBC's World Today programme.
"The architect, Norman Foster, gave us a model of art."
[B]TALL ORDER [/B] [I]Cost: 394m euros (ã272m; $524m) Highest point: 343m (1,125ft) Vehicle height: 270m (885ft) [/I]
Mr Foster said the bridge was designed to have the "delicacy of a butterfly". "A work of man must fuse with nature. The pillars had to look almost organic, like they had grown from the earth," the world-renowned British architect said in an interview with regional daily newspaper Midi Libre.
Like Concorde and the Channel Tunnel, the bridge is Franco-British.
French construction group Eiffage - that built the Eiffel Tower - financed the project in return for the right to collect receipts from a bridge toll for 75 years.
The bridge is now a source of pride for Millau, which believes many more tourists will come to admire one of the engineering wonders of the 21st Century, our correspondent says.
The construction also removes a bottleneck at the town, completing a new motorway link between Paris and the Mediterranean.
The construction of the steel bridge - now weighing about 36,000 tonnes - began in December 2001, using innovative techniques.
From the north and south sides of the valley, the metal sections of the structure were assembled, lifted slightly and then carefully slotted into place on each of the supporting pillars.
Motorists are expected to pay 4.6 euros (ã3.18; $5.60) for a trip across the bridge.
Story from BBC NEWS: [url]http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/europe/4091813.stm[/url]
Published: 2004/12/14 10:37:44 GMT
é BBC MMIV
2004-12-14 16:32 | User Profile
Here at the office, we get a lot of engineering trade publications sent to us for free. When I saw this magnificent bridge on the cover of [I]Modern Steel Construction[/I], you know I just [I]had[/I] to show my dittohead coworkers. Ya know, just to get in a cheap dig. :D
Even they have to admit that the French engineers are noted for coming up with some innovative designs.
2004-12-14 18:46 | User Profile
[QUOTE=EDUMAKATEDMOFO]...Even they have to admit that the French engineers are noted for coming up with some innovative designs.[/QUOTE]The design system at Boeing in suburban Philadelphia is Katia (sp?). This is a French innovation and reputedly the best in the world.
2004-12-15 05:30 | User Profile
Whilst we in America pay to occupy Iraq and Afghanistan, the fore fathers of our socciety have more divine ideas in mind. It's cool how much America has been insulted, our people are so ignorant. It's all about control. Believe it or not, in some ways, the GWB has actually laid some ghouls to rest literally. Now we just have to tell them to stop killing Iraqis. But what you must remember is well will never be fine. The land and the decisions.. if they are ever threatened, then it is our responsibility to KILL THEM before they KILL US..
2004-12-19 00:03 | User Profile
Amazing structure! Wonder how the neo-con Francophobes will deride this marvel... :D
2004-12-19 06:57 | User Profile
I heard that it was built primarilly as a platform from which French generals may jump after they lose their next war. They do that a lot, you know, lose wars.