Strait of Messina Bridge have made the span more than 60% longer than the Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge in Japan—the largest suspension bridge in the world at . Plans called for four traffic lanes (two driving lanes and one emergency lane in each direction), two railway tracks and two pedestrian lanes. In order to provide a minimum vertical clearance for navigation of , the height of the two towers was to be . This would have been taller than the Millau Viaduct in France (currently the tallest bridge in the world at ). The bridge's suspension system would have relied on two pairs of steel cables,
Millau Viaduct two limestone plateaus, the Causse du Larzac and the , and is inside the perimeter of the Grands Causses regional natural park. The Millau Viaduct forms the last link of the preexisting A75 autoroute (known as "la Méridienne"), from Clermont-Ferrand to Pézenas (to be extended to Béziers by 2010). The A75, with the A10 and A71, provides a continuous high-speed route south from Paris through Clermont-Ferrand to the Languedoc region, and through to Spain, considerably reducing the cost and time of vehicle traffic travelling along this route. Many tourists heading to southern France and Spain follow this route because it