Fades viaduct

The Viaduc des Fades is the highest railway viaduct in France.

Location

The viaduct spans the valley of the Sioule in Auvergne in the Puy -de- Dôme between Sauret - Besserve (Canton Saint- Gervais- d Auvergne ) in the north and Les Ancizes -Comps (Canton Manzat ) in the south, 40 km north- west of Clermont -Ferrand. The mountain area is called La Combraille or Les Combrailles. The bridge is part of the single-track railway line Volvic - Lapeyrouse, connects the Clermont-Ferrand to Montlucon.

A good view of the viaduct has one of the D 62 on the dam of the Barrage de Fades, where there is also an information board nearby.

History

The viaduct was planned and built in 1893-1896 from 1901 to 1909. From 1896 Virard Félix ( 1852-1910 ) worked from the actual plan, in 1901 received the ministerial authorization. The building contractors company was the Société Française de Constructions Mécaniques ( Anciens Établissements Cail ) from Denain (North), the construction management had Emile Robert held. The viaduct was completed on 11 September 1909 and was inaugurated by the Transport Minister René Viviani opened to traffic on 10 October 1909.

After almost one hundred years of operation on 9 December 2007 has been set for safety reasons. Since then, France's largest steel viaduct has no technical meaning more traffic, but it is protected as a historic monument since 1984.

Description

It is truss bridge with a total length of 470.25 m. The two 92 m high piers are built of granite stones, the truss are as consisting of a triple braid truss itself from steel. The height of the bridge is from the surface of Sioule from 132.5 m, making it the highest railway bridge in France. The pillars support the three bridge distances of 116, in the middle of 144 and again from 116 m in length. The bridge width is 22 m at the piers, the road nearly 8 m.