Yesterday, we announced the closure of the Mont-Blanc tunnel; however, following the landslides in Savoie, the work was postponed.
The French and Italian governments have in fact signed an agreement which provides for the postponement of work planned from September 4 to December 18 in the tunnel between Courmayeur and Chamonix. On this subject, the Minister of Transport Clément Beaune declared: “We will talk about it again next week”, after having met the local elected officials of Maurienne, where the landslide occurred last Sunday.
The formalization of the decision actually belongs to the Intergovernmental Conference, which is due to meet next Monday.
In Savoie, the French minister also declared that “it will not be possible to restore rail traffic within two months”.
According to the president of the Italian region of Valle d’Aosta, Renzo Testolin “for us, the reopening cannot go beyond December 18, overlapping with a fundamental tourist period for the local economy”.
One thing is certain, according to Beaune, the two tunnels – Fréjus and Mont-Blanc – cannot be closed at the same time, because the consequences would be too serious.
