Mont Blanc tunnel closure confirmed - VDA governor

(ANSA) - ROME, AUG 30 - Valle d'Aosta Governor Renzo Testolin said Wednesday that plans to close the Mont Blanc tunnel between Italy and France for 15 weeks from September 4 for maintenance work have been confirmed despite concerns about the related disruption and economic impact.
    There had been talk of the maintenance work on the tunnel linking Chamonix to Courmayeur being postponed after links between Italy and the rest of Europe were severely disrupted due to landslides caused by extreme weather.
    These led to the temporary closure of the Brenner and Frejus tunnels between Italy and Austria and France respectively, with heavy vehicles still shut to heavy goods vehicles on the latter.
    On Wednesday it was taking over two hours to cross Mont Blanc tunnel because of jams linked to the problems created by the landslides. Testolin said that he had talked to the company that manages the tunnel on Wednesday and there was no change of plan on the maintenance work.
    "The last few hours have made it clear how vital the trans-alpine link is for our region, for the whole country and for Europe," said Testolin.
    "Once this emergency is resolved, it will not be possible to delay a serious political-institutional analysis of the future of this piece of infrastructure any longer". (ANSA).