Rumors of a possible early reopening of the Mont Blanc tunnel have been circulating for a few weeks. Yesterday, the operator has made it official: the Mont-Blanc tunnel will reopen this Friday, 15 December 2023 at 4 p.m but this is conditional on the testing of all the safety systems that is taking place this week.
If all the tests are passed, the tunnel will re-open to all traffic, including HGVs.
Unfortunately, the tunnel will close again for 5 hours during the evening of Monday 18 December from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. due to the annual safety exercise organized under the aegis of the French and Italian prefectural authorities. They had intended to make the annual test while the tunnel was closed for maintenance, but with the tunnel reopenng 3 days ahead of schedule, that plan has been scuppered.
The various technical maintenance projects that started on 16 October are all in the completion phase. More than 200 people and 50 companies have been mobilized with a total expenditure of €20 million.
The early reopening is good news for the Maurienne Valley, which has absorbed a large part of the heavy goods vehicle traffic that normally uses the Mont Blanc tunnel.
Also, this early reopening is likely to make the many economic players happy on both sides of the Mont-Blanc massif, as they depend on the tunnel infrastructure.
Original reporting from Le Dauphiné
