The service and safety gallery of the Grand-Saint-Bernard tunnel was officially inaugurated on Saturday in the presence of the Italian and Swiss authorities. In service for two years, the structure allows users to take shelter if necessary. It took more than ten years to see the light of day.
KEYSTONE
The new 6 kilometer gallery runs along the main Grand-Saint-Bernard tunnel which connects Switzerland to Italy. Thanks to it, users can move to a safe place and leave the tunnel in the event of major accidents.
Announced in 2009, the work should have been completed in less than five years. But it was not until 2020 that the service and security gallery was put into service.
“The site has been stopped several times due to the defection of one company, then the bankruptcy of another. It was a very complex project because led by two countries and two administrations”, explained to Keystone-ATS Olivier Français, president of Tunnel du Grand-Saint-Bernard SA (TGSB SA) and adviser to the Vaudois States.
In total, the new gallery will have cost approximately 80 million francs, financed equally by Italy and Switzerland. “The budget was respected,” said Olivier Français. The circulation was not interrupted during the drilling period.
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