Bridging Design

Courier Countryside Column for 22 August

Bridging the Environmental Divide

            I can only imagine what countryside preservation campaigners would have said when the plans first appeared. After all it is one of the most beautiful valleys in the country. From the majestic hills to the south you can look down nearly a thousand feet to the river and the town below.

            The trouble was that all road users had to wind down this incline via a series of sharp switchbacks and then funnel right through the centre of the town, crossing an ancient bridge and starting the long ascent on the other side.

            The traffic queues were legendary and, in the height of summer, tailbacks started many miles before.

            Today, though, you cruise along the motorway, pausing only to pay your toll, and then have one of the most magical experiences in the world as you cross the viaduct which this year celebrates it’s tenth anniversary.

  It’s hard to know whether to look up at the slender masts each with their 11 pairs of sail-like stays or to look down at the to the river Tarn hundreds of feet below and across to the town of Millau nestling in the valley.

For me this is one of the greatest engineering achievements in history and one of the most stunningly beautiful pieces of design ever.

But it does impose a significant footprint on the landscape and you can understand why campaigners might have been horrified at the very idea of a man-made structure on such a scale ‘despoiling’ the beauty of nature.

I happen to think that the viaduct fits superbly into that landscape and actually enhances the view. And it has many practical advantages – enabling motorists to move freely to and from the south of France and ending the choking congestion for the local townspeople.

Perhaps the lesson is that, far from fearing change, we should be prepared to embrace progress. By all means let’s seek to lessen the environmental impact and promote excellence in design. But let’s not instinctively oppose things just because they are new.

And, of course, the designer of the Millau viaduct was the British architect Norman Foster. Which does no harm to the image of Brits in this part of France.  Locals may moan that we buy up their houses and leave them empty for most of the year and that we desecrate their language, but at least ‘we’ gave them the Millau viaduct!