Mont Blanc Closure Postponed: Traffic Chaos In Northern Italy

It looks like Italy and France have reached an agreement to postpone the closure of the Mont Blanc tunnel for maintenance.
The tunnel was supposed to be closed from September 4 until early Decem-ber for unscheduled maintenance work, as part of a project to upgrade the facility, which involves suspending traffic for 3 or 4 months each year until 2041. This closure will be carried out intermittently for almost twenty years, leading to GDP losses of 11 billion euros, according to the estimates from the regional association of industrialists Confindustria Piemonte.
But on August 27, a landslide in Val Maurienne, in the French Savoy, forced the authorities to ban the transit of heavy vehicles through the Frejus tunnel for two weeks. The consequence of this was the transfer of all traffic between Italy and France to two other viable routes, namely Ventimiglia (A10) and the Mont Blanc tunnel. In the last days of August, endless queues lined up for hours to get through the tunnel, while all the main arteries crossing the Aosta Valley were blocked.
Italian Infrastructure Minister Matteo Salvini and his French counterpart Clément Bon have agreed to postpone closure of the Mont Blanc tunnel scheduled for September 4 and have announced that “the works will have to be put off regardless of the opening of the Frejus tunnel. They will likely be moved to September 2024.” This issue is to be finally decided by the inter-governmental commission in the near future.
These problems exacerbate the critical transport situation between northern Italy and the rest of Europe. Goods that make up 60% of Italian exports pass annually through Brennero, Tarvisio, Ventimiglia, Sempione, Fréjus, Mont Blanc, and San Gottardo. The situation with mountain crossings “can no longer be considered just an emergency for our country, but a real chronic critical situation,” explains the association of traders Confcommercio. In fact, this element of the transport system continues to be particularly threatened by possible accidents and even atmospheric phenomena. Added to this are political problems with Austria that continues to restrict truck access through the Brenner Pass. The situation is not easy to improve in the short term, as the much-discussed TAV (high-speed rail line between Turin and Lyon) is about 15 years late and will not be ready until 2033. At present, the construction of a second tunnel through Mont Blanc remains only an idea.