... All in all a good route under the White Mountain
Information about the tunnel
~~~~~~~~~~~
After travelling through the tunnel I was interested and looked up a few facts
The tunnel burrows under Mont Blanc/ Monte Bianca the White Mountain. The tunnel links Chamonix, haute savoie France ... Read review
Advantages: Quick route to France from Italy or vica versa. Disadvantages: Some people do not like going through tunnels , limited exits
The tunnel under the white mountain,/Monte Bianca /Mont Blanc .
When you get to these mountains you can see why they are called the white mountains fantastic peaks white with snow. The picture is of the Italian enterence to the tunnel.
This year we drove all the way down through France to the Alps stayed a few days in a campsite in the Alps then journeyed on by road over the mountains to Italy. We did not go ... ...a good route under the White Mountain
Information about the tunnel
~~~~~~~~~~~
After travelling through the tunnel I was interested and looked up a few facts
The tunnel burrows under Mont Blanc/ Monte Bianca the White Mountain. The tunnel links Chamonix, haute savoie France to Cormayeur Aosta valley in Italy. The tunnel is 11.6 kilometres 7.25 miles long. When the tunnel was built I think this was the longest ... more
The tunnel under the white mountain,/Monte Bianca /Mont Blanc . When you get to these mountains you can see why they are called the white mountains fantastic peaks white with snow. The picture is of the Italian enterence to the tunnel.
This year we drove all the way down through France to the Alps stayed a few days in a campsite in the Alps then journeyed on by road over the mountains to Italy. We did not go through the tunnel through Mont Blanc but went the long way round the mountain it took us all day. After camping in the Aosta valley just the other side of Mont Blanc in Italy it was time to come home and we made a short cut through the tunnel.
Our experience through the tunnel. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Well first we had to queue about 15 minutes to get to the entrance of the tunnel a different day we had seen longer queues. So this gave us plenty of time to look at the scenery... We could see the mountain but to be honest I had seen many better views of the mountains. There were quite a lot of road works and the roads were busy.
At the entrance was the pay kiosk where we paid the princely sum of euros 32. 30 for info on other vehicles and return tolls see http://www.atmb.net/atmb_tunnel.php?id_rubrique=178&lang=en. We had to wait a few moments at the peage/ toll booth so that there was a gap between the car in front of us and our car. Driving through the tunnel vehicles have to keep at least 150m gap between them. There are blue lights at intervals in the tunnel that mark out 150m.
Once in the tunnel the traffic moved smoothly on the two lane dual direction road. There is a minimum speed limit of 50k per hour and a maximum speed limit of 70k per hour. There are large fines for not obeying these speeds or travelling too close.
The route through the tunnel was as you might imagine not spectacular. We needed our lights on and mostly what I could see was rock wall of the edge of the tunnel those blue lights , a few security notices the view of the back of the car in fronts and its rear lights, and cars going past us the other way. As we got neared the end of the tunnel it became lighter. Actually we were not in the dark for very long it us about ½ hour to travel through the 11.6 km /7.25 mile long tunnel. The views of the mountains coming through the tunnel into France were super. mountains covered in snow
I think if we were going the other way from France into Italy the views would have been good too. Its just going into the tunnel the vista was Limited. Travelling on into France the mountain s were picture post card views passing by views of glaciers the formation of which was fascinating.
This certainly was the easy way from Italy into France. My husband said he did not find the driving stress full if we have to travel either to Italy from France or from Italy to France again we would choose this route. According to the web site it is possible to get from Calais to the tunnel in 8 to 10 hours via motorways (payeage) It took us a little bit longer we chose to drive not on motorways part of the journey also hubby is the only driver it took us about12 hours but that included a stop or two. All in all a good route under the White Mountain
Information about the tunnel ~~~~~~~~~~~ After travelling through the tunnel I was interested and looked up a few facts
The tunnel burrows under Mont Blanc/ Monte Bianca the White Mountain. The tunnel links Chamonix, haute savoie France to Cormayeur Aosta valley in Italy. The tunnel is 11.6 kilometres 7.25 miles long. When the tunnel was built I think this was the longest road tunnel built. I think the shortest road route around the mountain is about 50 something K so it certainly saves a lot of mileage. Italian firms use this route a lot for transporting their goods to northern Europe on Lorries.
The tunnel was begun in 1957 completed in 1965.The tunnel is managed one half by a French company the other half by an Italian public company.
I wonder if you think driving through the tunnel is safe. What if you break down? There are many safety precautions in place throughout the tunnel, telephones, bays for broken down cars to pull off. There are a team of safety officials driving through the tunnel ready to help drivers in distress. The worst thing that could happen in a tunnel like this is fire.
On March 24 1999 there was a fire in the tunnel, a Belgium transport truck caught fire. This fire spread through the tunnel and 39 people died. I do remember hearing this on the news at the time. I think the biggest killer was smoke as there was not enough ventilation to clear smoke and fumes Previous to this fire there have been several smaller fires which were easily put out. The tunnel was closed for 3 years to clear and repair damage also new safety facilities installed. Now I believe the tunnel much safer to travel through.
The official site for the tunnel with much more info is, http://www.atmb.net/atmb_tunnel.php?id_rubrique=209&id_article=1341&la ng=en There is also a long article in Wikipedia
Wow if you wish to view the traffic congestion or lack of it go to http://www.tunnelmb.net/v3.0/gb/indexgb.asp# where there is a web cam to see the conditions at the tunnel entrances. Also a French or Italian weather report link is available. Information about traffic using the tunnel in the past is also available here.
