- See also: Fréjus Rail Tunnel
The Fréjus Rail Tunnel is a rail tunnel of length in the European Alps, carrying the Turin–Modane railway through Mount Cenis to an end on connection with the Culoz–Modane railway and linking Modane, France and Bardonecchia, Italy...
.
The
Fréjus Road Tunnel is a
tunnelA tunnel is an underground passageway, completely enclosed except for openings for egress, commonly at each end.A tunnel may be for foot or vehicular road traffic, for rail traffic, or for a canal. Some tunnels are aqueducts to supply water for consumption or for hydroelectric stations or are sewers...
that connects
FranceThe French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
and
ItalyItaly , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
. It runs under
Col du FréjusCol du Fréjus is a mountain pass in the Cottian Alps on the border between France and Italy. It connects Bardonecchia in Italy to Modane in France.The road over the pass is not paved, and most traffic was rerouted by the Fréjus Road Tunnel....
in the
Cottian AlpsThe Cottian Alps are a mountain range in the southwestern part of the Alps. They form the border between France and Italy...
between
ModaneModane is a commune in the Savoie department in the Rhône-Alpes region in southeastern France.It was part of the Kingdom of Sardinia until 1860.-Transportation:...
in France and
BardonecchiaBardonecchia is an Italian town and comune located in the Province of Turin, in the Piedmont region, in the western part of Susa Valley....
in Italy. It is one of the major trans-Alpine transport routes between France and Italy being used for 80% of the commercial road traffic.
Construction of the 13 km (8.1 mi) long tunnel started in 1974, and it came into service on 12 July 1980, leading to the closure of the
motorail shuttle service in the
Fréjus rail tunnelThe Fréjus Rail Tunnel is a rail tunnel of length in the European Alps, carrying the Turin–Modane railway through Mount Cenis to an end on connection with the Culoz–Modane railway and linking Modane, France and Bardonecchia, Italy...
. It cost 2 billion
francsThe franc was a currency of France. Along with the Spanish peseta, it was also a de facto currency used in Andorra . Between 1360 and 1641, it was the name of coins worth 1 livre tournois and it remained in common parlance as a term for this amount of money...
(equivalent to €700 million at 2005 prices). It is the fifth longest road tunnel in the world (as of 2005).
The French section is managed by the French company SFTRF, and the Italian section by the Italian firm SITAF. (The French politician Pierre Dumas was chairman of SFTRF from 1962 to 1989). The tunnel can be reached from the Italian side by the A32 Torino-Bardonecchia motorway, or by SS335 from
OulxOulx is a comune in the Province of Turin in the Italian region Piedmont, located about 70 km west of Turin, in the Susa Valley on the border with France.-Names:...
, which joins SS24 ( “del Monginevro”), and reaches Bardonecchia after 20 km. From the French side, it can be reached by the
A43The A43 autoroute is a motorway in eastern France. Travelling through the western Alps it is also known as the Autoroute alpine or Autoroute de la Maurienne. It connects Lyon with Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne and Modane to Italy and Turin. It is operated by AREA and SFTRF...
(‘’l’Autoroute de la Maurienne’’) from
LyonLyon , is a city in east-central France in the Rhône-Alpes region, situated between Paris and Marseille. Lyon is located at from Paris, from Marseille, from Geneva, from Turin, and from Barcelona. The residents of the city are called Lyonnais....
and
ChambéryChambéry is a city in the department of Savoie, located in the Rhône-Alpes region in southeastern France.It is the capital of the department and has been the historical capital of the Savoy region since the 13th century, when Amadeus V of Savoy made the city his seat of power.-Geography:Chambéry...
. A toll is charged to all traffic. Over 20 million vehicles passed through the tunnel during the first 20 years.
Following an accident in the
Mont Blanc tunnelThe Mont Blanc Tunnel is a road tunnel in the Alps under the Mont Blanc mountain, linking Chamonix, Haute-Savoie, France , and Courmayeur, Aosta Valley, Italy . It is one of the major trans-Alpine transport routes, particularly for Italy, which relies on the tunnel for transporting as much as...
in 1999, safety in the tunnel was improved at the start of 2000. A strict 70 km/h speed limit, and a safe distance of 150m between vehicles was imposed. The tunnel was equipped with the latest smoke and flame detectors, and a system of videocameras in the tunnel to detect the speed of traffic, as well as fire and smoke. Temperature sensors were installed at short distances throughout the tunnel, monitored from a central control post. Fire hydrants were installed every 130m, fed from large water tanks. There are 11 safety points along the tunnel, equipped with telephones and loud speakers connected to the control room, with a separate ventilation duct to supply fresh air. These are separated from the main tunnel by two fire doors; the outer door closes automatically when the temperature in the tunnel reaches a certain level. Finally there is a ‘thermal gate’ system at each entrance to identify any overheating vehicles.
Despite these measures, on 4 June 2005, a fire caused the death of two Slovak lorry drivers, and the closure of the tunnel to traffic for several weeks. It reopened to cars on 4 August 2005, and later to commercial vehicles.
The firefighting team consists of four intervention teams: positioned on the Italian and French sides, and two inside the tunnel, about 4 km from each end.
In 2007, an 8 meter wide rescue tunnel parallel to the main highway was constructed.
Near the midpoint is the Laboratoire Souterrain de Modane
http://www-lsm.in2p3.fr/ (also referred to as the Fréjus Underground Laboratory
http://nemo.web.lal.in2p3.fr/LSM/photos.html). Attempts are underway to build a larger laboratory, either in the same tunnel
http://www.to.infn.it/activities/schedules/caffe/Relazioni/lab-frejus-fulgione.pdf or in the even deeper
Lyon Turin FerroviaireLyon Turin Ferroviaire , subsidiary of Réseau Ferré de France and Rete Ferroviaria Italiana , is the promoter of the joint French-Italian part of the future rail link between Lyon and Turin....
15 km to the east.
http://physicsatmwatt.web.cern.ch/physicsatmwatt/Presentations/MW-Mosca.pdf
External links