NW-Bound
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- Jul 3, 2008
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It was only after this forced detour that I appreciated how rugged the terrain of this region is.
Going west from Milan to France, you have only two main highways. The northern one E25 goes to Chamonix via the tunnel Mont Blanc T1. T1 is 12-km long (7.2 mi), and costs 48 euros one-way. You also go through this tunnel to go from Northern Italy to Geneve. I drove this road in a 2017 trip.
The other E70 toll road is the one I took this time, and it is the southern road to Lyon via Turin. It goes through the T4 tunnel of 13 km, with a fee of 45 euros one-way. This road was closed and I had to take the back road which veered further south.
It was only when I studied the map more closely that I appreciated how few roads there were in this area. And the reason was obvious when I drove through this mountainous region to see for myself how hard it was to build roads. And the Italians already bore uncounted lesser tunnels of as much as 1 to 2 km long through the mountains. I drove through too many of them to recall. And these shorter tunnels were all free to pass.
PS. The Mont Blanc T1 tunnel was built in 1965. The Frejus tunnel T4 was commissioned in 1980.
Going west from Milan to France, you have only two main highways. The northern one E25 goes to Chamonix via the tunnel Mont Blanc T1. T1 is 12-km long (7.2 mi), and costs 48 euros one-way. You also go through this tunnel to go from Northern Italy to Geneve. I drove this road in a 2017 trip.
The other E70 toll road is the one I took this time, and it is the southern road to Lyon via Turin. It goes through the T4 tunnel of 13 km, with a fee of 45 euros one-way. This road was closed and I had to take the back road which veered further south.
It was only when I studied the map more closely that I appreciated how few roads there were in this area. And the reason was obvious when I drove through this mountainous region to see for myself how hard it was to build roads. And the Italians already bore uncounted lesser tunnels of as much as 1 to 2 km long through the mountains. I drove through too many of them to recall. And these shorter tunnels were all free to pass.
PS. The Mont Blanc T1 tunnel was built in 1965. The Frejus tunnel T4 was commissioned in 1980.
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