The authorities in Italy's
northwestern Val d'Aosta region and France's Upper Savoy region
linked by the Mont Blanc road tunnel have discussed its proposed
closure "for a maximum of nine weeks to allow work to be carried
out that cannot be postponed", Val D'Aosta Governor Renzo
Testolin said on Tuesday.
"We have in any case agreed on the need to guarantee the
reopening date of December 18 to allow the road network to be
restored before the Christmas period," he added in relation to
the proposal by tunnel operator Geie-Tmb to close the tunnel
from October 16 to carry out planned work on safety.
Testolin also said the authorities had agreed that "if possible,
this date (December 18, ed.) should be brought forward".
Earlier this month the Italy-France intergovernmental conference
on the tunnel decided to postpone by a year its scheduled
15-week closure starting September 4 for structural renovations
involving the ceiling to ease pressure on cross-border road
connections following disruptions due to a landslide caused by
extreme weather on the French side of the Frejus tunnel further
south.
The tunnel operator has said that the nature of the safety work
requiring the nine-week closure is such that it can be suspended
and normal traffic flows allowed to resume fairly quickly in the
event of new disruptions on other cross-border routes between
the two countries.
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