On the occasion of the Fête de la Science which started yesterday in Savoy, the SNCF and the company TELT (Euralpin Lyon Turin Tunnel, project owner of the site) offered, Saturday 2 and Sunday 3 October, visits to the titanic site of the Lyon-Turin tunnel which is due to enter service in 2030.
A Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne, it’s the construction site of the international station which is open. It must be put into service “end of spring 2022 for the temporary station“, according to the regional director SNCF Réseau. Thomas Allary assures us:”The work is progressing well and we will be on schedule.“
– Theo Boscher
The long structure of the station is laid, in two parts. First, the reception with the counters and a crossing that will be used only during the winter tourist season since “this station will promote the development of the tourist economy», Underlines Thomas Allary.
– Theo Boscher
The provisional station of Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne “end of spring 2022”
the multimodal hub takes shape, eight bus positions for the bus station are demarcated under the pointed wooden roofs. There will also be places for taxis and cars. The mayor of Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne even speaks of “self-service bicycles to reach the city center“.
– Theo Boscher
But all this will be in service until 2027. When the big international station will take over.
This 270-kilometer Lyon-Turin line includes 57 kilometers of tunnel dug into the mountain. Currently, only 9 kilometers have been completed in September 2019. It is a tunnel between Saint-Martin-la-Porte and La Praz, in Maurienne.
Exclamations in front of the buildings
This is another achievement that the public can visit this weekend: the covered trench of Saint-Julien-Mont-Denis, the entrance door to the base tunnel. This small part of the site represented by the trench took two years of work, it should be completed in the next few months.
In front of this gray concrete construction of a few tens of meters long, the exclamations of the visitors fuse: “It’s gigantic!“,”It is very impressive !“
– Theo Boscher
More than 200 people have registered to walk underneath and learn more about the general project that has been going on for decades. “I’m just curious, neither enthusiastic nor against, explains Yvan who lives in Haute-Maurienne. We are lucky to have a revolutionary choice happening here. It’s worth coming as a local to see what’s going on in our valley.“
– Theo Boscher
A lot of questions
All have questions about the duration of the work or the organization of the site. A TELT employee answers it and explains precisely how the different phases of the site unfold. For example, on the recycling of rubble, some were used on other parts of the site, such as the reinforcement of the bed of L’Arc which passes below.
– Theo Boscher
Many are afraid of the noise pollution to come. And already see the dust that invades their streets and their gardens with the sandstone works and the winds.
But this transparency operation makes Frédérique, who lives in Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne, want to see even more. “I am happy with what I am learning. But now I would like to go and see the tunnel boring machine directly!“
– Theo Boscher
There will still be other visits all the time since the site will not be finished before 2030.