Millau Viaduct mid-1998. After undergoing wind tunnel tests, the shape of the road deck was altered, and detailed corrections were made to the design of the pylons. When the details were eventually finalised, the whole design was approved in late 1998. Once the Ministry of Public Works had taken the decision to offer the construction and operation of the viaduct as a grant of contract, an international call for tenders was issued in 1999. Five consortia tendered: Piers were built with Lafarge high performance cement. The pylons of the Millau Viaduct, which are the tallest elements (the tallest pylon – ) were
Route nationale 9 "Parc Natural Régional des Grandes Causses". After crossing the "Col d'Engayresque" (888 m) the RN 9 re-appears and drops into the Gorges du Tarn and onto Millau where the road crosses the river and climbs up to the "Causse du Larzac" offering views of the valley and viaduct. The RN 9 provides a trunk road route avoiding the toll on the Autoroute A 75 as it crosses the valley on the Viaduc de Millau. The RN 9 has again been replaced by the A 75 for this section. At the "Pas de l'Escalette" just South of Le Caylar Roches the