This very long tunnel was once one of the longest in the world at 7 miles long – is an engineering marvel. The boring of this tunnel began in 1958 on the Italian side of the Alps. Six months later work was started on the France side. The tunnel is located about only several miles south of Chamonix and is easily reached by highway from Chamonix.
Six years went by before both countries met in the middle of the Alps, far underground. The machine that bore the tunnel is called a 100T tunneling machine. It bore through about 8 meters of material a day. Over 3 million tons of rock and dirt were removed from the tunnel over the six years. This material provided geologists a lot of information about the geological past of the mountains.
Since the opening of the tunnel in 1962 over 40 million vehicles have passed through. Today there are 40 security cameras strategically situated throughout the tunnel. Security is monitoring the tunnel 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The cost of a one way ticket for a small automobile is about 30 euros. Round trip tickets are 40 euros. The return portion of a round trip ticket must be used no more then three days from your purchase. For more information and latest pricing about this unique tunnel please visit: www.tunnelmb.net or you can call phone 04 50 53 06 15.
Note: there was a large explosion in this tunnel in 1999 and construction took over two years to repair and reopen this tunnel. The tunnel is fully open now.
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