La closure of Mont Blanc will cost 11 billion of euros of GDP al Northwest. To make the calculations Confindustria: the closure of the Mont Blanc Tunnel for more than three months a year for 18 consecutive years will cause a 9,8% drop in GDP in the Aosta Valley, while the North-West will have to absorb a decline negative of 5,4%. Almost 11 billion in 18 years. “Penalizing such a strategic area for production and exports – declared the president of Confindustria Piemonte, Marco Gay – it means penalizing the whole of Italy”. And he relaunches: "The government must intervene". An issue on which even the number one of Confindustria, Carlo Bonomi, had intervened at the beginning of the year: “Who has to take care of the Mont Blanc tunnel? Is it a matter of Valle d'Aosta or is it an Italian matter?”. The president of the industrialists of Valle d'Aosta, Francesco Turcato, he adds that it is "a nightmare, a black hole, with inevitable closures of companies, loss of jobs and effects also on the tourism sector".
When does Mont Blanc close?
The first stop, from 4 September to 18 December 2023, for the renovation of two portions of the vault, both on the Italian and French sides. A second stop in 2024 and then until 2040 to complete the whole work. A deferred intervention, which has a cost of around 500 million, is necessary, but for the business association of Valle d'Aosta, Piedmont and Liguria the effects are rather heavy, given that we are talking about around 1,7 million transits per year.
Mont Blanc closed and landslide on Frejus: transport in crisis
“Why not build the second barrel, without interrupting traffic, and then intervene on the historic one?”. But France says no. That the freight transport along the Alpine passes was in crisis we already knew time. But to add fuel to the fireemergency of the landslide in Savoy with the chiusura of rail traffic between Italy and France through the Frejus tunnel. The extreme weather conditions forced to limit traffic (to heavy vehicles weighing more than 3,5 tons and buses) in the continuation of the A32 Turin-Bardonecchia also on the Italian side. The repercussions on traffic along the Mont Blanc tunnel are inevitable, the journey of which has gone from the normal half hour to three hours. A situation that has thrown the connections between the two countries into total chaos. And if the Frejus gallery does not return to normal before Monday, there is a risk of having to change plans for the works along the vault of Mont Blanc, even if "at the moment no decisions have been taken and we have not changed our programs", explained to Ansa Riccardo Rigacci, director of Geie-Tmb. But the risk of a paralysis of international road transport on both sides of the Western Alps is real.
Not only Mont Blanc and Frejus. In all of this, even the Gotthard railway tunnel, inside which a train derailed on 11 August, is still closed. Difficult situation also for the Brenner railway line, on which the international Eurocity trains transit to Italy and coming from Munich, closed yesterday on the Austrian side (in the section between Innsbruck and the Brenner pass) due to a landslide.
"The situation is worrying, the blockade of the motorway and railway tunnels and the expected closure of Mont Blanc - he said Paul Foietta, president of the Italy-France intergovernmental commission for the Turin-Lyon railway connection - show a fragility that will only be overcome with the new base tunnel (of the Turin-Lyon high-speed train) which would put us safe from these types of events both in the Alta Val of Susa than in Maurienne”. We'll see.
