The images are impressive. This Sunday, August 27, a landslide of 700m3 of rock took place in Saint-André in Savoie. The RD 1006 is closed to traffic for an indefinite period, as is the A43 motorway between Saint-Michel-de-Maurienne and Modane. SNCF traffic between France and Italy is also interrupted until further notice. No injuries were reported.
It was around 5:15 p.m. when a major landslide occurred on the RD 1006, in the town of Saint-André, in La Praz, in Savoie.
“Several blocks of rocks representing a volume of approximately 700 m³ collided with the protective screen put in place preventively by the road services of the Departmental Council in this particularly monitored sector“, announce the services of the Savoie prefecture.
A resident of Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne was nearby at the time of the landslide. In the images he filmed, we realize the scale of the landslide and we see a car and a truck passing on the highway below, in the preceding seconds. Fortunately, no injuries were reported.
The A 43, the Maurienne motorway, was closed between ramps no. 29 (Saint-Michel de Maurienne) and no. 30 (Le Freney) in both directions of traffic and “For an undetermined time” specifies the Savoie prefecture.
Same observation on the RD 1006 which was also closed to traffic at the level of the landslide between the RD 1006 / RD 215 intersection and the Freney interchange.
The prefecture announces that a “diversion is currently in place by the RD 215a via the capital of the commune of Saint-André for light vehicles only“.
The Fréjus road tunnel is also closed to traffic for all vehicles over 3.5 tonnes in both directions France-Italy and Italy-France.
A time recommended by the Savoie prefecture for heavy goods vehicles, the diversion via the Mont-Blanc tunnel is now not recommended due to the significant traffic jams (more than three hours) on each side of the tunnel.
Since Monday, August 28 at the end of the afternoon, the authorities have asked heavy goods vehicles traveling in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region and bound for Italy to take the A7 motorway towards Valence then Marseille to reach then Italy via the A8 motorway and the border between Menton and Ventimiglia.
The same detour is now in place for heavy goods vehicles traveling in Italy and wishing to reach France.
The SNCF line which runs along the A 43 motorway was also affected by this major landslide.
“Rail traffic is interrupted between France and Italy at the level of Maurienne for an indefinite period”indicate the prefectural services which specify that “SNCF Réseau is handling the incident and requesting that the trains be turned back to their original stations”.
The Minister of Transport, Clément Beaune, reacted during the night from Sunday to Monday to this landslide, on X (formerly Twitter). He warns that“a return to normal will take several days.”
The SNCF explains for its part that“no rail traffic will be possible between Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne and Modane at least until Wednesday August 30 inclusive.”
Additional information will be communicated this Monday, “as soon as the prefecture has authorized access to the area and the first diagnostics on the necessary work have been carried out.”
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