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
Christian Millau Christian Millau Christian Dubois-Millot, pen name Christian Millau (30 December 1928 – 5 August 2017), was a French food critic and author. Born in Paris, he began his career as a journalist in the "interior policy" department of "Le Monde" newspaper. In 1965 he founded the Gault Millau restaurant guide "Le Nouveau Guide" with Henri Gault and André Gayot. He launched the famed Gault & Millau guide in 1969 with Henri Gault, which helped galvanise the movement of young French chefs developing lighter, more inventive and beautiful looking dishes. Some 100,000 copies of the guide were sold that year. He