Mont Blanc Tunnel to be closed for 3 months due to maintenance and renovation work

The Mont Blanc Tunnel is scheduled to be closed for about 3 months, from September 4 until December 18 ,2023, due to maintenance and renovation work. The same period of closure is also scheduled for 2024.

Furthermore, The Mont Blanc is a highway tunnel connection between Italy and France, located under the Mont Blanc Mountain in the Alps.

The tunnel’s construction started roughly 65 years ago in 1959 and lasted until 1965, the year it was opened to the public.

As for some of its technical specifications, the two-way tunnel measures 11.611km in length and 8.6m in width, with a clearance height of 4.35m. Its operation speed varies from 50 to 70 km/h, while its lowest and highest elevation points are at 1,274m and 1,395m respectively.

Small repairs take place at the tunnel annually but Grégory Schwarshaupt, Deputy Director of the French Autoroutes et tunnel du Mont-Blanc (ATMB), stated that “We have chosen to do more important, more substantial work to give a second life to this tunnel” and how it is about long-term sustainability.

More specifically, roughly 10% of the tunnel’s total length is scheduled to be maintained during the closure periods in 2023 and 2024, or about 600m each year, at a total cost of €50m.

Maintenance work for the rest 90% of the tunnel is also being scheduled for the following years.

The closure will take place in fall, as the least yearly traffic is observed during this season. Namely, the tunnel has about 1,700 heavy trucks passing daily throughout the year, while light vehicles pass at a 3,600/day yearly average rate with a peak of 6,000/day in August.