2023-09-08 11:13:28
The Maurienne valley breathed a sigh of relief on Friday at the announcement of the reopening of the A43 motorway this weekend, almost two weeks following a spectacular rock slide which caused significant disruption.
“The A43 will be able to reopen over the weekend”, “probably” from Saturday, announced the Minister of Transport, Clément Beaune, traveling to Modane.
The exact time will be fixed following final “safety operations”, he added, praising an “exceptional” site which notably made it possible to install a wall of 60 containers to protect the transport routes. possible stone chips.
Around 10,000 m3 of rocks fell on August 27 in Savoie, following a heatwave followed by heavy rain. It led to the closure of the RD 1006, the A43 motorway and the railway, isolating several municipalities.
The Fréjus tunnel, which serves the Maurienne valley and Italy, was then prohibited for vehicles weighing more than 3.5 tonnes, postponing heavy goods vehicle traffic towards the Mont-Blanc tunnel and Ventimiglia.
Its upcoming reopening delighted those involved in the transport sector on Friday.
“Like all carriers who go to Italy, we feel relief,” Philippe Jacquemmoz, CEO of the Jacquemmoz company which carries out 60% of its activity between the two countries, told AFP.
“It made us make detours via the (tunnel of) Mont-Blanc and via Ventimiglia and as Mont-Blanc is overloaded, the trucks waited on average four hours to pass through the tunnel, especially on the Italian side. This made us lose a lot of money.”
– “More limited” work –
To limit congestion on this major route between France and Italy, the authorities had nevertheless postponed maintenance work on the Mont-Blanc tunnel, which would have led to its closure for fifteen weeks from September 4.
The reopening of the A43 will therefore allow them to begin “in the coming days”, according to Clément Beaune. However, it will only be a “first phase” with work that is “more limited, more targeted and shorter” than what was envisaged until then.
The heavy work planned on the vault is “postponed, probably for a year”, he said, explaining that the first phase would last “probably around seven weeks”.
During a France-Italy intergovernmental meeting, it was “decided to limit the construction site to necessary and non-deferrable interventions for the safety of the roadway” and to postpone “the most important works until September 2024”, added sources at the Italian Ministry of Transport.
On the resumption of rail traffic, Mr. Beaune indicated that “it would take more time” and that it would take at least two months to evaluate and possibly carry out the necessary work.
The mayor of Modane, Jean-Claude Raffin, said he was “reassured” by the reopening of the highway, but “a little worried regarding the future”, particularly because of the uncertainties over train traffic.
“Everyone has now realized that the file cannot be closed at the end of this project, that we must see in the long term”, other landslides cannot be excluded in the future, said he underlined following a meeting between local elected officials and the minister.
“At the end of this meeting, “there remain plenty of questions to which no one has and cannot have answers today,” added Hervé Gaymard, president of the Savoie departmental council.
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