A major road axis between France and Italy, the Mont-Blanc tunnel closes this Monday, October 16 for two months, for maintenance work planned for a long time and postponed after a massive landslide at the end of August in the Maurienne valley.
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Built 60 years ago, used daily by thousands of vehicles, the sustainability of this 11.6 kilometer axis requires work “ important », explains the French concession company Autoroutes et tunnel du Mont-Blanc (ATMB). “ To allow this renovation work to be carried out, traffic is completely interrupted under the Mont-Blanc tunnel from Monday October 16 at 8 a.m. The tunnel reopening is scheduled for Monday December 18, 2023 at 10 p.m. », specifies Bison Fûté in a press release.
9️⃣ 🆂🅴🅼🅰🅸🅽🅴🆂 🅲🅷🆁🅾🅽🅾 | 🚨 This Monday, October 16 from 8 a.m., the Mont Blanc Tunnel will close completely for a period of two months. Its reopening is scheduled for December 18 at 10 p.m.!
@AutorouteINFO@Prefect74 pic.twitter.com/3WIs8krkQK
— Highways and Mont Blanc Tunnel (@ATMBinfo) October 13, 2023
For nine weeks, the work will concern the replacement of slab elements in the central portion of the tunnel and the change of fans on the vault, detailed the manager of the GEIE-TMB work on September 27. This work will precede a “ vault renovation test site (…) postponed to 2024 “.
Construction delayed
Fifteen weeks of closure for maintenance work had originally been planned from the beginning of September, but the schedule changed after a spectacular landslide which caused the closure of the railway, motorway and tunnel on August 27. du Fréjus, in the Maurienne valley, another of the major routes between France and Italy.
The postponement of road traffic that occurred at the end of summer led to monster traffic jams for several days at the Mont-Blanc tunnel, where normally around 1,700 heavy goods vehicles and 3,600 light vehicles travel per day. If road traffic has resumed in the Maurienne valley, rail traffic will not be restored “ before a little year », according to a calendar mentioned by the prefect of Savoie, François Ravier to the local press on September 29.
The long closure planned for this Monday constitutes a first for the Mont-Blanc tunnel since its reopening in 2002 after the fire which ravaged it on March 24, 1999, costing the lives of 39 people. The operators, who are also carrying out renovation work on part of the slab, have until now always managed to stick to nighttime closures, apart from a three-week period in the fall of 2022.
(With AFP)
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