The Mont-Blanc tunnel, one of the main roads between France and Italy, will remain closed for more than three consecutive months, from September 4 to December 18, 2023, and then again in 2024, for intense renovation work that They will continue for years. following.
Built 60 years ago, used daily by thousands of vehicles, this two-track structure, 11.6 kilometers long, is at a stage in which punctual repairs are no longer enough: “we have chosen to do a more important, more substantial, to give a second life to this tunnel”, explains Grégory Schwarshaupt, deputy director of the French concessionaire Autoroutes et Tunnel du Mont-Blanc (ATMB). It is about its “long-term sustainability”, he explained to the AFP.
The long periods of closure will be a “first” for the tunnel since it reopened in 2002 after the fire that devastated it on March 24, 1999, killing 39 people. The operators, who are simultaneously carrying out renovation work on part of the slab, have so far always managed to maintain the nightly closures, except for a three-week period in the fall of 2022.
3600 cars per day
At the time, leaks in the Italian press about possible lockdown scenarios caused great concern in Italian business circles, with some fearing that they would “bring the country’s economy to its knees.” In France, elected officials are concerned about the risk of further pollution in the Maurienne valley, where traffic could be transferred via the Fréjus tunnel, another major Franco-Italian axis.
Narrow and poorly ventilated, the Arve valley, which leads to the Mont-Blanc tunnel, regularly experiences episodes of air pollution, related among other things to road traffic and its nitrogen dioxide emissions. Around 1,700 heavy vehicles pass through the Mont-Blanc tunnel a year, while light vehicle traffic averages 3,600 cars/day, with peaks of more than 6,000 vehicles in August and gaps in autumn.
The first two phases of construction, described as “experimental”, should allow the vault to be repaired in four sections totaling 1,200 metres, or about 10% of the total length, and develop the most efficient schedule possible for the remaining 90%. . , which will also have to be renewed in the coming years.
“We don’t have much space”
The closure will take effect on September 4, 2023, the day after the end of the Ultra-trail du Mont-Blanc (UTMB) tests, a large tourist and sports crowd on both sides of the border. End scheduled for December 18, shortly before the Christmas holidays. “We don’t have a lot of space” between these two meetings, the deputy director admits.
The first test site will allow the renovation of 600 meters of vault in two places. If its results are positive, an additional 600 meters will be renewed in 2024. These first two phases have been budgeted at 50 million euros, supported in equal parts by the French (ATMB) and Italian (SITMB) concessionaires.
For the rest, “everything remains open”, underlines Grégory Schwarshaupt, who says he “understands the expectation” of regional players, particularly in the tourism sector, and carriers. “The sooner we can communicate, explain how the rest of this project will unfold, the better for everyone. It will not be before the end of 2024 ”, he explains.
Transfer to the Fréjus tunnel
92% of the goods that circulate between France and Italy transit by road, according to the Alpine Territories Agency, that is, 3 million heavy vehicles and 43 million tons (Tm) on all the roads of the Alps. According to Grégory Schwarshaupt, data collected during the three weeks of lockdown in the fall of 2022 saw a “90%” postponement of HGV traffic to Fréjus. As for light vehicles, 30% went to Fréjus, 40% to the Great Saint Bernard tunnel and 20 to 25% had “disappeared”.
Source: BFM TV
