2023-09-02 00:18:48
How many days will they really be postponed? The postponement of heavy renovation work on the Mont-Blanc tunnel, agreed on Thursday between France and Italy following a landslide in Savoie, could be limited to eight days if conditions allow, a source said on Friday. close to the board of directors of the work.
“Only the decision to postpone the closure has been taken to date. For the moment, it is planned to postpone the closure for eight days, in the current state of our knowledge. The rest is just speculation,” the source told AFP. The stakes are high: the impressive landslide that occurred on Sunday in the Maurienne valley forced the closure of the Fréjus tunnel, yet an alternative to the Mont-Blanc tunnel.
The Mont-Blanc tunnel had long planned to close for more than three months to traffic, from September 4 to December 18, for heavy maintenance work, then as much again in 2024. On Thursday, the Italian Ministry of Transport had mentioned that the works would be “probably postponed to September 2024”, Matteo Salvini, Italian Deputy Prime Minister in charge of transport, saying he feared “a blockage” or even “chaos” in the absence of a postponement.
Avoid congestion
The landslide convinced France and Italy to postpone this closure in order to avoid traffic congestion between the two countries. “If the Mont-Blanc tunnel can be closed no later than September 11, we are able to cope with the flow of heavy goods vehicles before that date, then to carry out all the planned works, with a reopening of the Mont-Blanc tunnel. Mont-Blanc on the promised date of December 18,” the source continued. If it intervenes after September 11, “several more substantial options will have to be analyzed”, including that of a “complete postponement of the work to the fall of 2024”, she specified.
The French authorities hope to restore road traffic on the A43 between France and Italy within eight days, which should make it possible to reopen the Fréjus tunnel to vehicles over 3.5 tonnes, banned since Sunday. This partial closure resulted in “very difficult” traffic conditions at the start of the week at the Mont-Blanc tunnel, with waiting times for heavy goods vehicles of up to 4.5 hours.
The French concession company Autoroutes et Tunnel du Mont-Blanc (ATMB), which manages the tunnel, had to recall dozens of its toll agents who were initially supposed to stop working until the end of the works in mid-December, according to a door- word.
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