MONT BLANC FR/IT:Tunnel Disaster

A Belgian truck carrying margarine and other foodstuffs was abandoned by its driver midway through the 11.6km (7.25mi) tunnel when he saw his engine afire. He said the fire spread so quickly he had no time to grab a fire extinguisher, and he fled “for my life” on foot to the Italian end. Some 30 extra vehicles seem to have been caught in or driven into the inferno in a terrible pile-up. The burnt hulks of 20 trucks and 11 cars were removed after the fire was finally put out. Damage to the structure is quite extensive and it is expected to be closed for months.

The tunnel was supposedly well equipped to deal with fire. It had 36 emergency breakdown sidings, one every 300m (1,000'), 20 fire refuge bunkers, separate fresh air below and foul air ducts above the roadway with a air-change capacity of 900 cub m/sec. Beginning in 1990 the concessionaires began a program to overhaul fire detection systems and improve fire extinguishing capability. Extra refuges were built, more emergency telephones installed, and variable message signs installed. 45 closed circuit TV cameras were set up in the tunnel and on its approaches. Fire extinguishers were placed every 100m. The 1997 annual report reported with pride the upgrade of fire fighting, fire detection and surveillance systems. It reported a fire incident in the tunnel in 1996.

The tunnel is basically 8.6m (28') diameter inside the lining providing for two 3.5m (11’6) lanes and overhead clearance of 4.45m (14’8).

The Mont Blanc Tunnel is one of seven routes through the Alps and is one of the oldest and most spectacular. It was opened in 1965, having been built by a French Italian Consortium. The toll concession is held by Autoroutes et Tunnel du Mont Blanc (ATMB) on the French side and the Societa Italiano Traforo del Monte Bianco on the Italian. They share revenues and expenses equally. ATBM is owned about half by the French state, about 30% by local governments including the Swiss city of Geneva, and the remaining fifth by banks and employees.

Not Heavily Trafficked

Contrary to some reports in the press after the fire it is not heavily trafficked. It carries an average 5,000 veh/day of which 2,000 are trucks. Traffic peaked in the early 90s and other tunnels and passes have gained at its expense in trans-Alps traffic. The Frejus Tunnel southwest of the Mont Blanc provides a more direct route between the Italian motorway system at Turin and the French at Lyons. And German-Italian traffic ens to go through crossings in Austria to the east - via the much busier Brenner Pass, the Tauern Autobahn, and other tunnels and crossings. In the early 1990s there was discussion of doubling the tunnel, but the end of traffic growth has scotched that idea.

French president Jacques Chirac said at ceremony honoring those who died in the Mont Blanc fire that the country should develop ‘piggyback’ rail to take the place of trucks driing in tunnels: “It is not sensible to have so many trucks on routes like this especially in tunnels like this one.”

It remains to be seen whether the French government follows up on this. Europe has very little trailer-on-flat car. The European rail system has very low overhead clearance and US-style double stack trains are unknown. Distances are short and the rail systems not equipped for modern freight movement. The whole system is built for short trains. And it is a collection of national systems with poor international connections. Modernization has been mostly geared to highspeed passenger trains, for which freight trains are a nuisance.

‘Piggybacking’ is extremely costly to institute on a network basis and the only extensive use of the technique has been in the Channel tunnel – where a serious fire a couple of years ago showed trains have their vulnerabilities in tunnels as well. (Contact ATMB 33 1 406 17 000)