The risk of paralysis seems to have been averted: the Mont Blanc tunnel will not close on Monday. With the agreement between Rome and Paris, Italian exports breathe a sigh of relief, trucks to and from France will be able to continue to circulate. The works scheduled from 4 September to 18 December in the tunnel between Courmayeur and Chamonix will be postponed. Probably in 12 months, says the Ministry of Transport led by Matteo Salvini. His French counterpart, Clément Beaune, is more cautious: "We will talk about it next week", he tells reporters after meeting the local administrators of the Maurienne, where last Sunday the landslide collapsed that triggered the perfect storm on the system of Italian-French transalpine connections. The formalisation of the decision is in fact a matter for the Intergovernmental Conference, which is due to meet on Monday. In Savoy, Minister French also announced that "before several weeks, before at least two months, it will certainly not be possible to re-establish rail traffic" given that at the moment it is impossible to access the tunnel "in complete safety".
In the morning, Salvini, from Venice, had made it known that he had asked Paris to postpone the work at the Bianco. The hypothesis of a postponement of a year would also make the regional council of Valle d'Aosta celebrate. According to its president, Renzo Testolin, "the reopening for us cannot go beyond December 18, overlapping with a fundamental tourist period for the economy". So "if the postponement of the start of work does not involve a postponement of the reopening of the tunnel, for us there are no problems to postpone a few days". One thing is certain, according to Beaune the two tunnels cannot be closed at the same time: the consequences would be unacceptable even for Paris.
For this reason, work is underway to restore traffic along the A43 French motorway, which is essential to ensure the passage of heavy vehicles to Fréjus from Modane. "I hope - said the minister - that it can reopen within eight days. It will be necessary to refine this estimate because before the reopening there are necessarily safety precautionary measures to be taken" and the "meteorological aspects" must be considered. However, "in the coming days it is very likely that the A43 will not be able to reopen normally". In fact, part of the roadway will be occupied by a 'container wall' that will serve to protect vehicles in transit, a technique already used in 2018. In the meantime, the long queues of vehicles heading to the Mont Blanc tunnel continue, albeit reduced, with waits of about two hours for heavy vehicles at the Pollein adjustment area and for cars.
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