Work on the Mont-Blanc tunnel will begin on Monday 11 September 2023 or a couple of days later.
The work will require the tunnel to be closed to all traffic.
Work was scheduled to begin on Monday 4 September 2023, but was delayed after the unscheduled closure of the Fréjus tunnel,
when on 27 August, some of a 700 cubic meter rockfall in the Maurienne Valley hit the protective barrier on the D1006.
As a precautionary measure, the A43 was closed to heavy traffic and so the Fréjus tunnel was not accessible
On Saturday 9 September 2023, the A43 re-opened so the Fréjus is now accessible to heavy vehicles. This is why we can expect the Mont-Blanc tunnel to close on, or soon after, Monday 11 September 2023.
As we are reporting, 2023 is seeing an unprecedented quantity and frequency of rockfalls in the Alps.
The rock in the high mountains is heavily fractured and is 'glued' together with ice. High temperatures are causing the 'glue' to fail and the rock to fall.
The French Minister of Transport, Clément Beaune, insists that the work is being carried out in the Italian part of the tunnel. The good news is that the work was projected to take 15 weeks and now that has been revised to as little as 7 weeks which is why we state that the Mont-Blanc tunnel should re-open on or about the 30th October 2023
Early on Friday 8 September, some Italian news media was reporting that after a meeting on Thursday 7 Sept of the Intergovernmental Commission (IGC), that the work was postponed for one year.
However, the Sky TG24 media group appeared to have the accurate story, that at a meeting on Thursday 7 Sept “the IGC decided to limit maintenance to only necessary and inevitable interventions, for the safety of the road surface”. Subsequently, Clément Beaune confirmed that this is correct and that, "This autumn, there will be no work on the tunnel wall. That work is now projected to take place in 2024."
This explains the reduction from 15 to 7 weeks.
Le Dauphiné contributed to this article.
