Repair and maintenance work is being planned for the Calix viaduct, which forms part of the Caen ring road in Northern France. Carrying the E46/N814 route, the viaduct is having to cope with traffic volumes of up to 80,000 vehicles/day.
Built in the 1970s, the viaduct is constructed of reinforced concrete and was opened to traffic in 1975. However, like many reinforced concrete structures of the period, it is carrying far more traffic than it was designed for and suffers many of the commonly seen limitations of the engineering of the time when it was built. The structure features twin lanes in either direction and a total of 15 spans, with a central span of 156m allowing a clearance of 38m for vessels.
The viaduct is showing extensive wear and tear and the upgrade project will start shortly, with the work expected to take 36 months to complete. The 1.2km viaduct spans the River Orne as well as a stretch of canal that links the city with the sea and has amongst the heaviest traffic volumes of any road link in Normandy. The work will be carried out so as to minimise traffic disruption. Even minor delays, caused by incidents such as crashes, typically cause extensive jams on the E46/N814 as well as in Caen itself. A crash in late 2025 on the route resulted in a traffic jam extending 13km.
Work was carried out previously on the Calix Viaduct in 2021 to tackle cracking in the caissons, which included a temporary ban on the use of the crossing by vehicles weighing more than 3.5tonnes.
