Part of the A9 motorway which will bypass Visp is finished: the northern tube in which vehicles will travel towards Valais Romand was opened on Friday. Just like the overlap tunnel from the Saas and Zermatt valleys.
The first vehicles took the north tube of the Visp tunnel of the A9 motorway at the start of the followingnoon. They were able to get from Brig to West Visp without going through the cantonal road.
“For motorists, it’s a time saving of regarding five minutes; it’s not a lot, but it’s a step in the right direction,” Franz Ruppen, head of the department of road safety, told Keystone-ATS. mobility, territory and environment (DMTE). The opening of the northern tube will above all make it possible to relieve the Upper Valais town of transit traffic, “a gain in quality of life for the inhabitants”.
The hard work of miners
Work on the 2.69 kilometer long tube and the overlapping tunnel began in 2014. It required an investment of around 350 million francs, including operating and safety equipment.
One of the major challenges of the site was the “very varied structure of the rock”, explained Martin Hutter. The head of the Valais service for the construction of national roads also evokes the difficult work of the miners who throughout the winter did not see the light of day either in the morning when they arrived or in the evening when they left the site.
The overlap tunnel connecting the Saas and Zermatt valleys to the Rhone plain was also put into operation on Friday. The entire bypass “constitutes an important stage in the construction of the A9 motorway in Haut-Valais”, estimates the canton.
One billion francs
The current Vispertal tunnel (2.4 kilometres) is undergoing transformation and will serve as the south tube of the Visp tunnel. Renovation work began in 2019 and the inauguration of the tube is expected for the end of 2024/beginning of 2025.
In total, the Visp bypass should cost just over one billion francs. A cost borne 96% by the Confederation and 4% by the canton of Valais.
Except Finges
The A9 motorway in Haut-Valais should be completed in 2026, except for crossing the Bois de Finges. For this last section of 8.5 kilometers between the junction of Sierre-Est and La Souste, no date has been advanced for the time being.
The cost of crossing Finges listed in the federal inventory of landscapes of national importance is estimated at 1 billion francs. This amount can be explained in particular by the fact that 75% of the section will be covered trench and tunnel.
In total, the A9 in Haut-Valais will extend over 35.3 kilometers and its total cost is estimated at 4 billion francs.
This article has been published automatically. Source: ats
