On his X account (formerly Twitter) Transport Minister Clément Beaune explained on Thursday August 31 that road traffic on the A43 linking France and Italy could potentially resume within eight days. For the time being, this axis has been interrupted since August 27, following a massive landslide in Savoie.
On the other hand, rail traffic on the Chambéry-Turin line will not resume for “at least two months”, specified the minister after a trip to the Maurienne valley, a major axis between France and Italy. A landslide of 10,000 m3 of rocks led to the closure of the RD 1006, the A43 motorway and the railway line on Sunday, isolating several municipalities. The Fréjus tunnel which serves the Maurienne valley has been prohibited for vehicles over 3.5 tonnes, shifting road traffic of heavy goods vehicles to the Mont-Blanc tunnel.
On Tuesday, Béatrice Leloup, territorial director of SNCF Réseaux, indicated that the railway infrastructure was “affected”, with “a lot of damage” on the tracks, signaling and galleries, due to the landslide. To avoid congestion road traffic, the Minister also confirmed the postponement of the closure of the Mont-Blanc tunnel, which had been planned for a long time from September 4 due to maintenance work.
Clément Beaune’s visit to the Savoy prefecture in Chambéry and Saint-Jean de Maurienne was boycotted by several elected officials from the municipalities affected by the landslide. “He chose to hold a meeting with all the services in Chambéry and then to hold a press conference and meeting with elected officials 30 km from the site of the landslide, ”regretted the mayor of Modane Jean-Claude Raffin to AFP.
“It is here that the disaster took place, it is here that the minister should have traveled to meet the elected officials”, declared in a press release a dozen elected officials from Haute-Maurienne, claiming “to feel a great lack of consideration … on the part of the Minister”.
