France-Italy train tunnel: How is the Lyon-Turin project progressing?

Large protests are expected this week in Savoie against the construction of a railway tunnel through the Alps linking Lyon and Turin.

Organised mostly by ecological group Soulèvements de la Terre, thousands of people are expected to attend the protest – despite the local prefecture banning demonstrations at the site.

Up to 2,000 police officers will be deployed to quell any protests in the Maurienne valley, where construction work is currently taking place.

Work on the 65km tunnel – which will spear through the Alps to connect the two cities – is currently focused on renovating stations by the tunnel’s entrance and building ventilation shafts.

Since the start in 2015, safety access shafts have also been completed, and work on boring the tunnel on both the French and Italian sides has begun.

There are still around 47 km of tunnels to bore, however, with the project having an estimated completion date of 2032.

Protestors want to see ‘no light at the end of the tunnel’ for project

Protests against the project centre on the environmental impact of building the tunnel through the mountainous region, particularly to water sources nearby.

The project will “destroy the mountains for the economic interests of a few, to the detriment of living things”, say the groups organising the protest.

Demonstrators will be joined by politicians, including Grenoble mayor Éric Piolle and left-wing La France Insoumise MP Mathilde Panot.

The prefect of the Savoie department, François Ravier, has banned protests in the area this weekend over fears for the safety of police officers and firefighters.

It said demonstrators had failed to give clear details of the route of the demonstration, the number of expected attendees, nor the location of their base camp for protest actions.

Despite the prefecture's ban, up to 4,000 protestors are expected, including a contingent of non-French ecologists (mostly Italians).

“Provocations towards law and order forces [by the groups] are likely,” said Jérémy Tracq, mayor of Bessans and vice-president of the Haute-Maurienne Vanoise community of communes, where the protests will take place.

Read also: Protests intensify over plans for French motorway extensions

2032 objective

Although the project has seen some work since 2015, the bulk of actual boring work is yet to begin.

The real deep tunnel boring is due to start next year, after the delivery of a specially-built tunnel boring machine that is currently being produced in Germany.

At its height, the project will see seven boring machines working on the tunnel.

Alongside the tunnel itself, additional work such as clearing cliffsides close to the tunnel and construction of water decanting basins has been taking place. Major works on the entrance on the French side of the tunnel, at Saint-Julien-Montdenis already began last December.

Various governmental and EU bodies have committed €6 billion towards the project, with 24% of this amount coming directly from the French state.

Currently, 1,200 workers are employed on the project, even before intensive boring begins.

You can watch a video about the project from the constructors’ official YouTube site below.

Despite the tunnel’s objective to link Lyon with Turin, the exact route it will take once in France has not yet been determined.

Transport Minister Clément Beaune said the French government will pledge up to €3 billion to improve infrastructure on the French side of the route and is waiting for the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region (which the line will run through) to match this.

Related articles

Explainer: What is a ZAD land zone and where are they in France?

French hospital inundated with 80 - 100 ski accidents a day