Tancarville Bridge: France

The Tancarville Bridge (Pont de Tancarville in French) is a suspension bridge that crosses the Seine River and connects Tancarville (Seine-Maritime) et le Marais-Vernier (Eure), near Le Havre

The bridge was completed in 1959 at a cost of 9,000,000,000 Francs.

Bridge dimensions
Pylon height: 123 m
Total length: 1 420 m
Deck width: 12.50 m
Height above valley floor or water: 50.85 m
Length of main bridge: 960 m
Length of center span: 608 m
Length of side spans: 176 m

Pont du Gard: France

The Pont du Gard is an aqueduct in the south of France constructed by the Roman Empire, and located near Remoulins, in the Gard departement.

Name

Pont du Gard means literally bridge of the Gard (river). The Gard river, which has given its name to the Gard departement, does not actually exist under this name. The river, formed by many tributaries, several of which are called Gardon, is itself called Gardon until its end.

Description

Built on three levels, the Pont is 49 m high, and the longest level is 275 m long.
Lower level: 6 arches, 142 m long, 6 m thick, 22m high
Middle level: 11 arches, 242 m long, 4 m thick, 20 m high
Upper level: 35 arches, 275 m long, 3 m thick, 7 m high

On its first level, it carries a road and at the top of the third level, a water conduit, which is 1.8 meters (6 feet) high and 1.2 meters (4 feet) wide and has a gradient of 0.4 percent.

History

The Pont du Gard is thought to have been built around 19 BC; its construction is attributed to Augustus’ son-in-law and aide, Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa. Designed to carry the water across the small Gardon river valley, it was part of a nearly 50 km (31 mi) aqueduct that brought water from springs near Uzes to the Roman city of Nemausus (Nîmes). The full aqueduct had a gradient of 34 cm/km (1/3000), descending only 17 m vertically in its entire length and delivering 20,000 cubic meters (44 million gallons) of water daily. (more…)

Pont de Normandie: France

The Pont de Normandie(or Bridge of Normandy) is a cable-stayed road bridge that spans the river Seine linking Le Havre to Honfleur in Normandy, northern France. Its total length is 2143.21 m (856 m between the 2 piers). The bridge allows the Autoroute A29 to cross the Seine river.

Construction

Construction began in 1988 and lasted 7 years. The bridge opened on January 20, 1995. At that time the bridge was both the longest cable-stayed bridge in the world, and had the record for the longest distance between piers for any cable-stayed bridge. It was more than 250 m longer between piers than the previous record. This record was lost in 1999 to the Tatara Bridge in Japan. Its record for length for a cable-stayed bridge was lost in 2004 to the 2883 meters of the Rio-Antirio. At the end of construction, the bridge had cost $465 million.

Structure

The span, 23.60 m wide, is divided into 4 lanes for traffic and 2 lanes for pedestrians. The pylons, made of concrete, are shaped as upside-down Y’s. They weigh more than 20,000 tons and are 214.77 m tall. More than 19,000 tons of steel were used and 184 cables were used.

Pont Marengo: France

The Pont Marengo (Marengo bridge) crosses the Canal du Midi and links Carcassonne to the local railway station. The lock is very busy and a favourite tourist attraction as the canal boats work their way along the canal. The plaque on the bridge dates the work to 1800 or as it also says year 8, measuring time in the new republic.

The bridge is named after the Battle of Marengo at which Napoleon defeated the Austrians in 1800. A little way down from the bridge the railway line crosses the canal and here there is a small plaque and garden commemorating the maquis who were executed here by the Nazis.

Plougastel Bridge: France

The Plougastel Bridge, or Albert Louppe Bridge, is a bridge over the Elorn River in Plougastel-Daoulas, near Brest, France.

Construction on the Plougastel Bridge started in 1926 and was completed on October 9th, 1930. Part of it was destroyed by the German army in 1944, and shortly after was closed for repairing. It was reopened after the widening and construction five years later.

The Plougastel Bridge is an arch bridge, or has a fixed, double deck structure. The arches are composed of concrete and have a total length of around 888m.

The engineer who constructed the bridge was named Eugène Freyssinet, and the president of the Council managing the bridge was named Jules Albert Louppe, of which the bridge was named. Louppe died in 1927 one year after the bridge began constructing.

Millau Viaduct: France

The Millau Viaduct (French: le Viaduc de Millau) is a cable-stayed road bridge that spans the valley of the River Tarn near Millau in southern France. Designed by French bridge engineer Michel Virlogeux in collaboration with British architect Norman Foster, it is the tallest vehicular bridge in the world, with one pier’s summit at 341 metres (1,118 ft)-slightly higher than the Eiffel Tower and only 40 m (132 ft) shorter than the Empire State Building. It was formally opened on 14 December 2004 and opened to traffic on 16 December 2004.

Location

Before the bridge was constructed, traffic had to descend into the Tarn River valley and pass along the route nationale N9 near the town of Millau, causing heavy congestion at the beginning and end of the July and August vacation season. The bridge now traverses the Tarn valley above its lowest point, linking the causse du Larzac to the causse rouge, and is inside the perimeter of the Grands Causses regional natural park.

The bridge forms the last link of the A75 (la Meridienne) autoroute, providing a continuous high-speed route south from Paris through Clermont-Ferrand to Beziers. The purpose of the A75 is to increase the speed and reduce the cost of vehicle traffic travelling along this route. Many tourists heading to southern France and Spain follow this route because it is direct and without tolls for the 340 km between Clermont-Ferrand to Beziers, except for the bridge itself.

The Eiffage group operates the viaduct as a toll bridge, with the toll currently set at €4.90 for light automobiles (€6.50 during the peak months of July and August). The bridge was constructed by the Eiffage group, which also built the Eiffel Tower, under a government contract which allows the company to collect tolls for up to 75 years.

Description

The Millau Viaduct consists of an eight-span steel roadway supported by seven concrete piers. The roadway weighs 36,000 metric tons and is 2,460 m (8,071 ft) long, measuring 32 m (105 ft) wide by 4.2 m (13.8 ft) deep. The six central spans each measure 342 m (1,122 ft) with the two outer spans measuring 204 m (670 ft). The roadway has a slope of 3% descending from south to north, and curves in plan section on a 20 km (12.4 mile) radius to give drivers better visibility. It carries two lanes of traffic in each direction.

The piers range in height from 77-246 m (253-807 ft), and taper in their longitudinal section from 24.5 m (81 ft) at the base to 11 m (36 ft) at the deck. Each pier is composed of 16 framework sections, each section weighing 2,230 metric tons. These sections were assembled on site from pieces of 60 metric tons, 4 m (13 ft) wide and 17 m (56 ft) long, made in factories in Lauterbourg and Fos-sur-Mer by Eiffage. The piers each support 97 m (319 ft) tall pylons. The piers were assembled first, together with some temporary supports, before the decks were slid out across the piers by satellite-guided hydraulic rams that moved the deck 600 mm (23.6 inches) every 4 minutes.

The viaduct is the tallest vehicular bridge in the world, nearly twice as tall as the previous tallest vehicular bridge in Europe, the Europabrucke in Austria. The proposed Strait of Messina Bridge in Italy, if constructed would be taller still and would also be the world’s largest suspension bridge. Current plans call for towers 382.6 m high. (more…)