I met an old friend, Charles, who has been gadding about since retirement after many years as our neighbourhood newsagent. He recently drove all the way to Spain and this photo shows one of his pit stops. (Charles loves to drive and will happily spend hours at the wheel!)
He is standing in front of the Millau Viaduct, a slender 6 lane cable-stay bridge over the River Tarn in France. It is part of the new E11 expressway connecting Paris and Barcelona. It has a steel deck and is 300 m (984ft) high and 2.5 km (1.5 m) long. To protect drivers against fierce crosswinds, the structure has been equipped with protective screens and heavy-duty crash barriers.
Designed by Architect Sir Norman Foster it opened in December 2004. The main conctractors were Eiffage, the same company that built the Eiffel Tower. Sir Norman said the bridge was designed to have the "delicacy of a butterfly". Michel Virlogeux, a French structural engineer, was responsible for the overall design concept.
A bird's eye view of the 'butterfly' *
* Open source: link for LM's photo is here.
AP photo is from BBC News website here.
_______________________________________________________________________
January 2013 Update:
Because this post is looked at more than most other posts I have done, it may be of interest that I have, over the years, done 2 more posts: here (about Michel Virlogeux) and here (children's book - a gift from Michel and his wife - about the building of the bridge).
No comments:
Post a Comment