MILLAU

MILLAU
VIADUCT LONG SPAN STRUCTURE

VIADUCT
NAME : ROHIT DIGRA
YEAR : 1ST YEAR
M.ARCH (P.M.)
 INTRODUCTION
TheMillau Viaductis acable-stayed bridgethat spans the
valley of theRiver Tarn nearMillauin southernFrance .
It is the 12th highest bridge deck in the world.
TheMillau Viaductis acable-
It was built to reduce traffic of small town Millau as the

stayed bridgethat spans the

motorway connecting Paris and Spain passed through Millau.

valleyMAJOR of theRiver
ENGINEERINGTarn CHALLENGES
1) BUILD THE TALLEST BRIDGE PIERS
nearMillauin IN THE WORLD.
southernFrance .
2) PUT 36000TON FREEWAY ON TOP
OF IT.
It is the 12th3) ERECT highest bridge
7 STEEL PYLONS HUNDREDS
deck in the world. OF METER ABOVE THE SOLID GROUND.

It was built to reduce traffic

of small town Millau as the
SPECIFICATIONS
 CONSTRUCTION OF PIERS
Each pier is treated as a worksite in its own right so that
construction of all the seven
bridges can take place independently.
The geometry of the piers varies from one pouring step to the
following pouring step
and is tapering entire way up.
The shape of the mould was changed at every 4m height to fit
the profile and
reinforcing concrete method was used in raising the pier.
The formwork was of self-climbing type for outer surfaces and
craneassisted for the TEMPORARY PIERS
inner surfacesThe installation
as the of was
risk factor the deck
to be by successive
taken care of.
Altimetric checks by GPS ensured
launching a precision
operations requires of the
the order of
erection of 7
5mm in both X and Y
temporary piers.
direction. These piers consists of a metal framework of a
square section of 12mx12m whose members
are tubes of 1,016mm diameter.
They introduced this piers between the two
pillers as the span between the two piers was
 STEEL DECKS
They opted for steel deck over the
conventional concrete
block,as it is not economical and safe to lift
concrete over such
heights.
Fabrication of the deck section was done on
steel factory .
Around 2200 sections each weighing upto 90
tonnes and were LAUNCHING THE
7some
temporary piers
were 22 DECK
help support the weight of
long.
the deck,as the longest deck could support was
half the span.
Two deck segments were launched from each
end of the bridge
 HYDRAULIC LAUNCHERS
Computerized launchers push the
pre-fabricated deck segments on to
the piers.
Each cycle moves the deck 600 mm.
Total of 5000 cycles required.
The cycle is repeated every 4
minutes
 NOSE RECOVERY
Weight of steel box girder deck sags as span
is completed.
Nose recovery system attached to raise the
deck to the level of the next pier.
This aligns the deck for the level and
curvature of the next pier.
The precision carried out in the nose recovery
system was due to PYLON
the use CONSTRUCTION
of GPS system as
After
the the deck
accuracy construction
was upto 4mm.was finished it
was time to erect the pylons to provide cable
support for the bridge.
The temporary piers were supporting the deck
but due to the flexibility of the steel the deck
was very undulating, the deformations were
quite large.
So the 90 m tall and 700 ton pylons were
installed as fast as possible.
The pylons and cables were needed to
After the deck construction was finished it was time to erect
the pylons to provide cable support for the bridge.
The temporary piers were supporting the deck but due to
the flexibility of the steel the deck was very undulating, the
deformations were quite large.
So the 90 m tall and 700 ton pylons were installed as fast as
possible.
The pylons and cables were needed to straighten the
undulated deck.
For placing the pylons steel engineer Marc Buonomo used a
technique which was practiced in the ancient Egypt.
In this Egyptian method the pylons were lifted slowly using
CONNECTION
a hydraulic machine. BETWEEN PYLON , DECK
AsAND
An
THE
they were
inverted PIERlifted
Y being
shape they
ha been were also
adopted for made to pivot by
twopylons,which
the temporary steel
are towers,both of them
metal,and which are secured by a cable.
As the bridge
oriented is lifted as
longitudinally it also pivots untill
extensions of theit is vertical and it
is erected
split shafts. of the piers.
This arrangement gives the pylons the
 ATTACHMENT OF CABLES

With all seven pylons in place it was time to attach the cables
stays that would straighten the rippling deck and give it the
strength to endure the traffic load.
The roadway weighs over 40000 tonnes and the 154 cable
stays should prevent it from sagging or collapsing.
These cable stays are made of 91 individual steel strands and
have breaking strength of 25000 tonnes.
These stays are strong enough to hold 25 jumbo jets all at full
throttle!
 WINDSCREEN

An issue that presented itself after the bridge was completed

was the fact that the wind speed at the level of the bridge was
upto 151 km/hr,which is significantly more than the wind
speed that would be found at ground level.
This would cause serious issues driving on the bridge
because the high wind speeds would push vehicle to the side,
making driving dangerous.
This problem was addressed by the inclusion of windscreens
that reduced the affect of the wind by 50%,effectively
 GRADING OF MATERIALS
The deck and the pylons,entirely of metal,are made of steel
of grade S355 and S460.
The piers are constructed in B60 concrete.
This concrete was chosen more for its durability than for its
high mechanical resistance.

REFERENCES
www.leviaducdemillau.com
Wikipedia
Cnrsm.creteil.iufm.fr
www.enerpac.com/html/Projects/Millau/Millau_Launching_S
ystems.html
www.fosterandpertners.com/projects/millau-viaduct
Megastructures-Millau viaduct national geographic.
Google images