Tunnel of Mont Blanc

The tunnel of Mont Blanc is a road tunnel which connects Chamonix-Mount-White in Haute-Savoie (France) to Courmayeur in the Vallée of Aoste (Italy).

The tunnel of Mont Blanc consists of a single gallery with double direction of circulation, the doubling of the tunnel, is projected, not having never been realized for reasons initially of financing, then of savage opposition of the residents because of the harmful effects due to the intense circulation of the heavy trucks. It allowed a reduction of course of France towards Turin of 50 km and towards Milan of 100 km.

Length of the tunnel: 11,6 km of Chamonix to Courmayeur; altitude French side: 1.274 m; Italian side 1.381 m (the tunnel horizontal, but in the shape of V is not reversed to facilitate the water run-off). It passes plumb exact with the Aiguille of the South. Its height is of 4,35 m and its width of 8 m (2 times 3,5 m and 2 times 0,5 m of edge line).

After long years necessary to its boring, the tunnel is brought into service the July 19th 1965.

Its management is separate in two parts and two companies concession naires are formed, which manage each one its half of tunnel:

French side, ATMB (Highways and tunnels of Mont Blanc), created on April 30th, 1958;
Italian side, SITMB (Società italiana per azioni per it Traforo LED Assembles Bianco), created on September 1st 1957 (and which belongs to 51% with Autostrade).

History until the catastrophe of 1999

1946 : Italian side, drilling of a gallery of a hundred meters which marks the beginning of the project.
1949 : Signature of a Franco-Italian convention envisaging the boring of a road tunnel under the Mont Blanc.
1953 : Signature of a national charter of the construction of the tunnel which will be ratified by the French Parliaments (in 1954, by 544 votes against 32) and Italian (in 1957)
1957: Creation of the STMB (Société of the tunnel of Mont Blanc), which will become in 1996 Highways and Tunnel of Mont Blanc (ATMB).
1959 : In May, the French and Italian Ministers for Public works launch officially work of boring. May 30th, with Chamonix, great demonstration for the opening of work of the perforation of the tunnel of Mont Blanc in the presence of the Public Minister for Labor. It is announced that a jumbo of 75 tons will make it possible to bore the tunnel in less than 30 months.
August 4th 1962: Junction of the French and Italian teams of drilling. The opening was successful, the variation of axis being lower than 13 centimetres.
July 16th 1965: Inauguration of the tunnel by the president of the French Republic Charles de Gaulle and the President of the Italian Republic Giuseppe Saragat.
July 19th 1965: opening of the tunnel to circulation.
1973 : Opening of the first section of the White Highway.
1978 : A network of surveillance cameras is installed, at a rate of every 300 meters and the full capacity of fresh air supply of the tunnel is increased to 900 m ³ /s.
1980: To avoid the rejection on the platform of the foul air by the French head of the tunnel a vertical well 7 m in diameter is created with the right of the curve of entry of the tunnel.
1990 : Within the framework of a multiannual plan of modernization, are implemented:

a third generation of Video monitoring with transmission of the data by fiberoptics,
the creation of a network of 18 pressurized shelters, at a rate of every 600 meters and niches of safety, at a rate of every 100 meters.
the creation of a control sets fire to under pressure,
the replacement of the safety members: terminals of call, extinguishers, generators.

1997 : Startup of a system of detection fire and launching of studies for an automatic control of incident, a centralized technical management of the safety equipments and a new indication by panels with variable messages.

Some figures relating to the construction of the tunnel

Personal : worked with the realization of the project 5 engineers, 350 workmen, the whole for a 4.600.000 work hours cumulated total ( estimate).
Explosive : 711 tons of explosives were necessary to make jump 555.000 m ³ of rocks.
Consumption : 37 million kWh and 2.700.000 liters of fuels for the trucks and the machines.
Various : 771.240 bolts, 6.900 foils, 300 tons of iron were used to support the vault, 5.000 m ³ for the formwork of 60.000 tons cement (mixed with 280.000 m ³ of aggregates and 10.000 tons of products of injection)

Annual traffic

The catastrophe of 1999

The March 24th 1999, a transporting truck of the margarine takes fire and is immobilized in the tunnel. The fire supplied with the combustible materials present in the vehicles (containing hydrocarbon, loading, tires…) and amplified by the effect of furnace caused by the tunnel took enormous proportions. It took 53 hours for the firemen to control it. 39 people died carbonized.

Chronology of the events of the beginning of the disaster

10:46 : The Belgian truck which will take fire enters the tunnel.
10:51 : The alarm of opacity starts.
10:55 : French toll is closed, indication passes to the red.
10:56 : Toll is closed Italian side.
10:58 : The helps are alerted.
11:09 : arrival of the first firemen at the entry of the tunnel.

It will have taken 25 minutes for the firemen to intervene instead of the accident.

Consequences according to drama

After this drama, the tunnel remained closed during three years and reopened the March 9th 2002 with the cars, after long safety and repair work (repair of the strongly damaged vault). The latter consisted of creation:

of niches every 100 meters,
of a rescue station in the center of the tunnel, with a heavy vehicle and several firemen present permanently in this room,
of shelters connected to a gallery of independent evacuation (under the roadway),
of a single control room (French side, with a second control room Italian side in help).

The rules of exploitation were changed:

unification of the two operating companies in the form of a GEIE (European Grouping of economic interest); Franco-Italian common teams are made up to ensure the safety in the current management of the tunnel;
prohibition of the trucks transporting of the dangerous matters and the polluting vehicles (lower than the standard euro 0), strict speed limit, intervals between vehicles (150 m in circulation, 100 m with the stop).

See too

Internal bonds

Tunnel of Frejus
List of the tunnels

External bonds

File on the tunnel of Mont Blanc of the French ministry of Transport
ATMB, official site
Structurae: Tunnel of Mont Blanc
Association for the respect of the site of the Mount Blanc

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