Fréjus Rail Tunnel

The Mont- Cenis tunnel or Fréjus tunnel (French Tunnel du Mont Cenis or Tunnel du Fréjus ) is a railway and a toll highway tunnel in the Alps between France ( Savoie ) and Italy (Piedmont ) on the connection between the places Modane and Bardonecchia. This is one of the main transit routes through the Alps, originally England with the Mediterranean ports should already connect to the Suez Canal towards India.

The two roads pass under the Pointe de Fréjus ( 2932 m ) and the Col de Fréjus ( 2542 m) in the Mont- Cenis massif, but are about 30 kilometers away from the same pass.

Railway tunnel

The railway tunnel ( usually called Mont Cenis Tunnel ) was built in 1857 and opened with a length on 17 September 1871 by 12.2 km, making it the oldest major tunnel through the Alps. The original construction period should be 25 years by the tunneling with pneumatic rotary hammers from 1861 as well as the electrical ignition of explosive charges could be shortened to 14 years. ( As were these new technologies not yet used ) while maintaining the Bautempos 1857-1860 had the completion lasted 40 to 50 years. Thus, the breakthrough came on 25 December 1870., The tunnel for the first time allowed for a quick connection of the European capitals Rome and Paris to Turin and Grenoble and is still on a railway line with European significance.

Until the opening of the Gotthard tunnel in 1882, he was the longest tunnel in the world.

The length of the double-track tunnel was in the line ( which, together with the two exported from surveying reasons direction tunnels called) 12219 m. The actual length of the tunnel with the lying in curves, two-sided output, however, reached 12819.6 m. In 1881 an extension of the tunnel with relocation of the north portal (due to reductions of the area south of Modane ) was necessary. Since then, the length of the tunnel is 13657.45 m.

The plan is the construction of approximately 52 km long Mont Cenis base tunnels for a new high-speed line between Lyon and Turin.

Road tunnel

The road tunnel (usually referred to as the Fréjus tunnel ) was opened in 1980 and replaced the car train by train. It has a length of 12.870 km. The tunnel has only a tube having two lanes. Following the accident in the Mont Blanc tunnel in 1999, the security has been improved in the tunnel. Among other things, trucks at five locations in the tunnel can contact in case of emergency.

On June 4, 2005, two people were killed in a fire in the tunnel, 19 people suffered smoke inhalation. A loaded with tires truck had caught in the nearly 13 -kilometer tunnel fire, after he had already lost diesel. The flames captured another five vehicles, including three trucks The tunnel then remained until August 3, 2005 closed because the ceiling had partially collapsed.