FIVE days after the collapse of a new high-tech terminal at Paris airport, France yesterday saluted its latest feat of monumental engineering: the installation of the final link in the world’s highest bridge.

A final span was being rolled into place 804ft above the River Tarn at Millau, in the southern Massif Central, completing the 1.6-mile steel deck of a spectacular motorway viaduct that is being hailed as a technological wonder.

The viaduct, which includes concrete pillars that are 80ft taller than the 900ft Eiffel tower, was designed by Lord Foster of Thamesbank.

Completing the A75 motorway to the central Mediterranean coast, it is to open in December after 3½ years in construction.

Technical reasons were cited for a three-day delay in a visit to the site yesterday by Jean-Pierre Raffarin, the Prime Minister. Officials denied that the delay was connected with the collapse at Terminal 2E at Charles de Gaulle airport on Sunday, in which four people died.

The disaster put a damper on the planned fanfare for the Millau viaduct as a symbol of Gallic engineering prowess, especially since Eiffage, the company that has financed and built the bridge, also supplied the glass for the vaulted roof of the airport terminal.

Marc Legrand, chief executive of Eiffage, sought to reassure the public over the safety of the construction operation at Millau and the finished viaduct, which has been designed to withstand winds of up to 160mph. “In living memory, no accident linked to design or construction has ever taken place during any of France’s great construction projects, whether the TGV high-speed rail lines, the Channel Tunnel or the Metro underground railways,” he told Le Figaro.

Hundreds of thousands of tourists have already admired the soaring Millau bridge, which will remove a notorious bottle-neck in the motorway route from Paris to the central Mediterranean coast. Millau residents, who initially protested against the viaduct on environmental and economic grounds, are now relishing an expected business boom.

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