Millau Bridge

[Comstock]

I'm just watching this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6LbkM1AhxNM

Apparently there were often five hour tailbacks in the town of Millau. Even now, it takes a good hour and a half to drive through the town and up the other side. Still, this seems a very radical solution. I wonder if anything cheaper was proposed? Would a simple bypass not have been easier?

Luckily from a Sabristi POV we have this lovely bridge instead. Has anyone here driven it?

[c2R]

I've driven it a number of times over the past 30 years... The queues were at their worst when the motorway was built up to each side of the valley but the bridge was incomplete. It's a marvel of engineering to drive, and to stand underneath. The town underneath is a good stopover point for travellers to the south of France and Spain.

[Bryn666]

I'm just watching this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6LbkM1AhxNM

Apparently there were often five hour tailbacks in the town of Millau. Even now, it takes a good hour and a half to drive through the town and up the other side. Still, this seems a very radical solution. I wonder if anything cheaper was proposed? Would a simple bypass not have been easier?

Luckily from a Sabristi POV we have this lovely bridge instead. Has anyone here driven it?

The Tarn Valley is extremely steep sided; the problem wasn't just the traffic going through Millau, it was the negotiating the hills on the old N9, particularly the ridge section to the south of the town.

The A75 runs for continual lengths at over 800m above sea level (with summits exceeding 1,000m), which gives you an indication of the type of terrain they had to deal with. Going over the whole valley was therefore the easiest way to get a road across.

[M4Simon]

I'm just watching this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6LbkM1AhxNM

Apparently there were often five hour tailbacks in the town of Millau. Even now, it takes a good hour and a half to drive through the town and up the other side. Still, this seems a very radical solution. I wonder if anything cheaper was proposed? Would a simple bypass not have been easier?

Luckily from a Sabristi POV we have this lovely bridge instead. Has anyone here driven it?

I've driven it twice. The first time as a means of getting somewhere, though I was rather pleased that the best route used the viaduct.

The second time it was a day trip destination on a summer holiday in the Cantal, with the sole reason for doing that day trip being to drive over, under and around the viaduct. It was a good day out, and impressive though it is from the A75, you need to see it from the valley floor to fully appreciate its scale and majesty.

Simon

[A303Chris]

There is an excellent display in the service area just before the bridge southbound or after it northbound. Gives you the history of the bridge and the A75 from Clermont Ferrand to Beziers. The exhibition shows three alternative bridge designs to cross the valley with two being at a lower level which involved deep embankments on the approach and therefore it was decided that the high level was better.

The passes as Bryn says are over 1000 metres with one at 1205 metres which according to the exhibition is the highest motorway pass in Europe. I didn't know that to I read it and it made the a75 experience even better for me.

[Burns]

Apparently there were often five hour tailbacks in the town of Millau. Even now, it takes a good hour and a half to drive through the town and up the other side. Still, this seems a very radical solution. I wonder if anything cheaper was proposed? Would a simple bypass not have been easier?

That sounds like you're looking for the standard British approach to road building which is to half-arse every job. The Millau Viaduct is an example of thinking, well, if we're going to do this, we might as well do it properly.

[Comstock]

Apparently there were often five hour tailbacks in the town of Millau. Even now, it takes a good hour and a half to drive through the town and up the other side. Still, this seems a very radical solution. I wonder if anything cheaper was proposed? Would a simple bypass not have been easier?

That sounds like you're looking for the standard British approach to road building which is to half-arse every job.

I'm not looking for anything as such. I'm just wondering if anyone proposed anything simpler because this must not have come cheap...

[c2R]

I think that the alternative solution of widening the existing road had already been attempted and bypassing the town centre was completed long ago - there were numerous climbing lanes on each side, but the main problem is really trying to twist and turn up and down a steep sided valley with the braking and run off needed for HGVs, plus considerable seasonal variations in temperature and traffic levels. It gets to over 35C on a summer's day, and well below zero in winter.

There are other motorway routes that divert around, and perhaps a significant diversion would have been possible, but traffic then would continue to have used the old route. Any other solution involving large scale remodelling of the valley to take the motorway up and down using suitable gradients would have been similarly very expensive and have had massive environmental issues. I don't think that there was really any alternative but to build the bridge in its current form.

[brombeer]

Part of the rationale behind the construction of the A75 was improving access to (and thus aiding economic development of) the remote-ish region that is the Massif Central. So it was more or less imperative that the major population centres of the area would be well served. As the A75 started as a series of gradual improvements and duplications of the original N9, it was always apparent that the A75 would have to serve Millau - not towns further out to the West (e.g. Rodez) or East (e.g Mende). When they started to investigate options to cross the Tarn valley in the Millau region, a couple of alternatives were identified that would probably have been cheaper than the present bridge. But they were quickly discarded: partially as a result of environmental sensitivities, but also because they would not serve Millau sufficiently well. To note that a more easterly route would in fact have been shorter than the current A75 on your way South, but they were not really an option because of that desire to service Millau.

If you read French, the description at WikiSARA gives valuable insight of both the issues with the descent into Millau on both sides and on the alternatives considered. An upgrade to the old N9 was, as c2R notes, not feasible as it was effectively too steep particularly on the Southern slope. Looking at options close to Millau, two alternatives had been identified for the current bridge. One that would have tracked the N9 as much as possible and one with a descent to a lower bridge. But both of these would have required a significant number of additional bridges and tunnels to help overcoming the steep slopes and the option of the high bridge eventually materialised as an easier option.

[Vierwielen]

Apparently there were often five hour tailbacks in the town of Millau. Even now, it takes a good hour and a half to drive through the town and up the other side. Still, this seems a very radical solution. I wonder if anything cheaper was proposed? Would a simple bypass not have been easier?

That sounds like you're looking for the standard British approach to road building which is to half-arse every job. The Millau Viaduct is an example of thinking, well, if we're going to do this, we might as well do it properly.

... and the architect was British. So is it just the British politicians who bodge things?

[Big L]

Apparently there were often five hour tailbacks in the town of Millau. Even now, it takes a good hour and a half to drive through the town and up the other side. Still, this seems a very radical solution. I wonder if anything cheaper was proposed? Would a simple bypass not have been easier?

That sounds like you're looking for the standard British approach to road building which is to half-arse every job. The Millau Viaduct is an example of thinking, well, if we're going to do this, we might as well do it properly.

... and the architect was British. So is it just the British politicians who bodge things?

Proof of the relative merits of politicians and experts.

[Bryn666]

Apparently there were often five hour tailbacks in the town of Millau. Even now, it takes a good hour and a half to drive through the town and up the other side. Still, this seems a very radical solution. I wonder if anything cheaper was proposed? Would a simple bypass not have been easier?

That sounds like you're looking for the standard British approach to road building which is to half-arse every job. The Millau Viaduct is an example of thinking, well, if we're going to do this, we might as well do it properly.

... and the architect was British. So is it just the British politicians who bodge things?

Seems so.

[ScottB5411]

In 21 years of driving coaches, there are not many things I've been truly "wowed" by. My first drive up to and over the Millau viaduct was one of those things. In my view, it's worth the drive down there purely just for the viaduct alone. The A75 is also a stunning drive itself.

[Owain]

In 21 years of driving coaches, there are not many things I've been truly "wowed" by. My first drive up to and over the Millau viaduct was one of those things. In my view, it's worth the drive down there purely just for the viaduct alone. The A75 is also a stunning drive itself.

Funny you should say that: I am going to Brittany at Easter, and am already thinking about making one of my notorious 'detours' ...

[Bryn666]

In 21 years of driving coaches, there are not many things I've been truly "wowed" by. My first drive up to and over the Millau viaduct was one of those things. In my view, it's worth the drive down there purely just for the viaduct alone. The A75 is also a stunning drive itself.

Funny you should say that: I am going to Brittany at Easter, and am already thinking about making one of my notorious 'detours' ...

From Brittany that is one heck of a detour! Presumably a rough line via Nantes, Tours, Bourges, and Clermont-Ferrand?

[B9127]

This Friday 8pm Channel 5 - The Millau Viaduct - one hour programme

[Comstock]

This Friday 8pm Channel 5 - The Millau Viaduct - one hour programme

It wouldn't surprise me to find it was this same programme but I'll give it a whirl anyway. Thanks for the heads up.

[nick_dunn]

Wonderful coverage featuring the bridge in this afternoon's Tour de France stage which started in Millau town. There is a highlights show tonight (ITV4) , and repeated tomorrow but I doubt it will show the full coverage of the start. If you have recorded the live programme, make sure to watch from the start!

[Big L]

Link