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35-573: The term "Mont Cenis" could be derived from mont des cendres ("mountain of ashes"). According to tradition, following a forest fire, a great quantity of ashes accumulated on the ground, thus the name. The path of ashes was found during the building work of the route. The pass connects Val-Cenis in France in the northwest with Susa in Italy in the southeast. Thence, the valley of the Dora Riparia

70-611: A part of Savoy was left on the Italian side. It was, therefore, highly fortified as a protection against an invasion of the Val di Susa route towards Turin. In 1874-1880, the Italian Regio Esercito built three stone forts: Fort Cassa, Fort Varisello and Fort Roncia, supported by several batteries and fortifications, such as those at the top of Mont Malamot . Two further armored batteries, La Court and Paradiso, were added in

105-710: A road called the Via Francigena , with a final destination of Rome. In 1414, Niccolò III d'Este, Marquis of Ferrara travelled on this route returning from Paris having met Charles VI , and described the Col du Mont Cenis as having "a good ascent and bad descent". This pass was crossed in 1689 by the Vaudois, and is believed by some authors to have been the pass used by Hannibal to cross the Alps . As an Alpine pass, Mont Cenis featured in several historical incidents. One example

140-725: Is 1,123 metres (3,684 ft) and it passes beneath the Pointe du Fréjus (2,932 metres (9,619 ft)) and the Col du Fréjus (2,542 metres (8,340 ft)). Headed by the Savoyard civil engineer Germain Sommeiller , construction of the tunnel commenced during August 1857, at a time when both ends of the future tunnel were in the Kingdom of Sardinia . From the onset, the tunnel was an ambitious engineering challenge, its gallery being twice

175-646: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Fr%C3%A9jus Rail Tunnel The Fréjus Rail Tunnel (also called Mont Cenis Tunnel ) is a rail tunnel of 13.7 km (8.5 mi) length in the European Alps , carrying the Turin–Modane railway through Mont Cenis to an end-on connection with the Culoz–Modane railway and linking Bardonecchia in Italy to Modane in France . Its mean altitude

210-522: Is followed to Turin (103.8 km / 64.5 mi from Modane). The carriage road mounts the Arc valley for 25.7 km / 16 mi from Modane to Lanslebourg , whence it is 12.9 km / 8 mi to the hospice, a little way beyond the summit of the pass. The descent lies through the Cenis Valley to Susa (49.9 km / 37 mi from Modane) where the road joins the railway. To the southwest of

245-587: Is occasionally drained for maintenance. The pass of Mont Cenis has been featured 5 times in the Tour de France . It has been classified hors-catégorie (yielding the highest number of points in the King-of-the-Mountains classification) since 1999. For the 5 years that the pass was on the Tour, the following cyclists have crossed the pass in the lead: In the 2013 Giro d'Italia , the pass was featured in

280-531: Is the descent of Constantine I to Italy, to fight against Maxentius . It was the site of a military victory by the French Army of the Alps , led by General-in-Chief Alex Dumas over Piedmontese forces in April 1794, a victory that enabled the French Army of Italy to invade and conquer the Italian peninsula. It was the principal route for crossing the Alps between France and Italy until the 19th century. It

315-700: The Autoroute Ferroviaire Alpine . A future high-speed rail tunnel to improve transit capacity between France and Italy, called the Mont d'Ambin Base Tunnel , is being planned as part of the Turin–Lyon high-speed railway project. The mountains of the Alps had posed long difficulties to any movements between Italy and its neighbours. Even with the arrival of new technologies such as the railway,

350-464: The Autoroute Ferroviaire Alpine . Various other enhancements were enacted, largely on the French side of the tunnel. The first package of work focused on civil works, while a follow-up package focused on electrical systems. During the former, the track was replaced and the track bed lowered, sections of masonry were repaired where applicable, new safety recesses created, along with other civil works around

385-592: The Bardonecchia side; activity started on the Modane side in December 1857. It had been deemed impossible to increase the rate of excavation via intermediate shafts, thus the tunnel was driven entirely from either end. Serious challenges were encountered, including difficulty with providing sufficient ventilation. New methods of ventilation were successfully introduced, alongside other technological innovations. At

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420-497: The Culoz–Modane railway across Savoy and the Turin–Modane railway across Piedmont , was largely constructed in the 1850s by the Kingdom of Sardinia and named after its king, Victor Emmanuel II . Prior to 1860, Sardinia had included both Savoy and Piedmont. Even as it was being first envisioned, the Fréjus Tunnel, a necessary feature for traversing Mont Cenis , was viewed as being the primary engineering challenge of

455-443: The 15th stage on May 19, 2013. Mont Cenis has a subarctic climate ( Köppen climate classification Dfc ). Due to the elevation of the top of the mountain at 2,030 m (6,660 ft), the temperature here is significantly lower than that of the plains. Even the warmest months of July and August, the temperature rarely rises above 25 °C (77 °F), and often falls below minus −20 °C (−4 °F) in severe winter. Around

490-716: The Alps have since been constructed, it has remained active, the Fréjus Rail Tunnel being the oldest of the large tunnels through the Alps. Between 1868 and 1871, the Mont Cenis Pass Railway was briefly operational as a temporary link over the Mont Cenis Pass. It was closed shortly after the opening of the Fréjus Railway. This railway was itself described as an engineering achievement in its own right. The original tunnel portal on

525-413: The French side at Modane was only used for little over a decade before falling into disuse after having been bypassed during 1881. It was decided to redirect the tunnel to a new entrance positioned to the east of the original, where the ground was considerably more stable. The surplus portal was left in place as a monument, and has since become a minor tourist attraction. A steam locomotive has been placed in

560-752: The Mont Cenis is the Little Mont Cenis (2184.2 m / 7166 ft), which leads from the summit plateau (in Italy) of the main pass to the Etache valley on the French slope and so to Bramans in the Arc valley. The pass runs parallel to the Fréjus Rail Tunnel . This (highest point 1295 m / 4249 ft) is really 27.4 km 17 miles southwest of the pass, below the Col du Fréjus . From Chambéry

595-556: The Turin–Modane railway by far; the initial length of its gallery was 12.8 kilometres (8.0 mi), which was twice as much as the previously longest tunnel in the world at that time. The Savoyard civil engineer Germain Sommeiller was appointed to head this undertaking. Considerable backing for the endeavor was forthcoming from individual Italians, not only in terms of funding, but also technical expertise, public endorsements, and labourers. During August 1857, drilling work commenced on

630-498: The connection between Rome and Paris , via Turin and Chambéry . Following the development of car and truck transportation, the Fréjus Road Tunnel was built along the same path from 1974 to 1980. During the 2000s, the Fréjus Rail Tunnel underwent a series of works to modernise and improve it, including the increase of its bore to accommodate wider rail vehicles, such as container trucks on piggy-back wagons, as part of

665-493: The disused portal, which is presently located adjacent to a road. During the 2000s, the Fréjus Rail Tunnel underwent a programme of works to both modernise and improve it. One specific and major alteration performed during this period was the enlargement of the bore to facilitate an equivalent loading gauge of French Lignes à grande vitesses (LGVs) throughout, thus enabling the tunnel to be traversed by wider rail vehicles, including container trucks on piggy-back wagons, as part of

700-477: The early 20th century, while the Fascist government built here part of its underground Alpine Wall . All these fortifications are now in French territory after the boundaries revision in 1947 allowing Savoy to get its historical territory back. The Lac Du Mont Cenis is an artificial dam that was constructed in 1921 on top of the original road and border crossing. It feeds two hydroelectric power plants. The lake

735-412: The effective width. Air at a pressure of 7  atm (710  kPa ) was conducted in iron pipes from hydraulic compressors , powered by local streams at the mouths of the workings. There were separate pipes for water jets to remove waste from the holes. Each firing required up to eighty holes, taking between six and eight hours to drill. On 26 December 1870, French and Italian workers shook hands as

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770-505: The heights across the valley of the Arc. During the 1930s, the Alpine Line fortifications Ouvrage Saint-Gobain , Ouvrage Saint-Antoine and additional fortifications at Le Sappey were also constructed. A blockhouse along the rail line to the east of the modern tunnel entrance has become a tourist attraction. The maison penchée ("leaning house") was built in 1939 to guard the tunnel entrance over an ammunition magazine connected to

805-494: The length of any tunnel previously constructed. Some figures believed that it would take as many as 40 years to complete; the total construction time was 13 years, the work having been greatly accelerated by the introduction of new technologies such as pneumatic drilling machines and dynamite . On 17 September 1871, the Fréjus Tunnel was opened to traffic for the first time, facilitating a new era of interaction between France and Italy. The Fréjus tunnel remains an important link in

840-647: The line runs up the Isère valley, but soon bears through that of the Arc or the Maurienne past Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne to Modane (98.2 km / 61 mi from Chambéry). The tunnel is 13 km in length, and leads to Bardonecchia , some way below which, at Oulx the line joins the road from the Col de Montgenèvre . In the Middle Ages, pilgrims passing through Moncenisio and Susa Valley came to Turin along

875-420: The pass was built between 1802 and 1805 by Napoleon to improve military connections. By 1810, it was the most travelled road between France and Italy, as Strasbourg was closed to silk trade traffic from Vienna , leading to Lyon becoming a major trade centre instead. The Mont Cenis Pass Railway was opened alongside the road in 1868, but was dismantled in 1871, on the opening of the Fréjus Rail Tunnel . It

910-519: The task of successfully traversing these peaks was viewed by numerous figures as a fool's errand, unfeasible to the point of being impossible. However, there was a strong political desire amongst officials in both Italy and France to establish a railway between the two which, if completed, would launch a new era of transit and bring new commercial opportunities for both nations. In Italy, the Victor Emmanuel Railway , which included both

945-456: The time, it was believed that, if the tunnel's construction had to rely upon traditional methods alone, it would have taken 71 years to complete. Three years following the start of the tunnel's construction, unanticipated political interactions led to the transfer of Savoy from Sardinia to France in 1860 under the Treaty of Turin ; the change of borders did not majorly disrupt the rate of work on

980-514: The transfer of Savoy from Italy to France, the Fréjus Tunnel became a possible invasion route from Italy to France, particularly as it avoided the historical difficulties posed by the Mont Cenis pass. Accordingly, an extraordinary amount of defensive fortifications were constructed near to and around Modane. The Fort du Replaton and the Fort du Sapey were built in the late nineteenth century on

1015-413: The tunnel however. The tunnel took 14 years to construct, its rate of progress having been considerable increased via the use of new technical innovations such as pneumatic drilling machines powered by compressed air. Ten drills were mounted in a frame to bore shot holes to receive blasting powder charges, with those in outermost positions aligned in a slight divergence from the centreline to increase

1050-477: The tunnel's exterior, including a reservoir . On 27 August 2023, a major landslide occurred on the line close to the tunnel at Saint-André à La Praz. All traffic through the tunnel, including the major TGV and Frecciarossa services between the Gare de Lyon and Milan Centrale / Porta Garibaldi were suspended. Repairs have been complicated and the line is not expected to re-open until spring 2025. Following

1085-495: The two teams met halfway: the galleries were aligned to about 40 centimetres (16 in) horizontally and 60 centimetres (24 in) vertically. On 17 September 1871, the Fréjus Tunnel was officially opened to traffic. One foreign newspaper covering the occasion, the Michigan Argus , described the tunnel as being "one of the greatest, if not the greatest, engineering feat of the age". While further major tunnels through

Mont Cenis - Misplaced Pages Continue

1120-574: The world, there are also Zoige and Litang areas with similar climatic characteristics here. The average annual temperature in Mont Cenis is 2.6 °C (36.7 °F). The average annual rainfall is 753.6 mm (29.67 in) with May as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in July, at around 11.3 °C (52.3 °F), and lowest in February, at around −4.5 °C (23.9 °F). The highest temperature ever recorded in Mont Cenis

1155-557: Was 27.6 °C (81.7 °F) on 26 June 2019; the coldest temperature ever recorded was −24.7 °C (−12.5 °F) on 4 February 2012. Lanslebourg-Mont-Cenis Lanslebourg-Mont-Cenis is a former commune in the Savoie department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in south-eastern France . On 1 January 2017, it was merged into the new commune Val-Cenis . This Savoie geographical article

1190-652: Was also used as the main passage by which Charlemagne crossed with his army to invade Lombardy in 773, and later by Napoleon I. Mont Cenis was one of the most used Alpine passes from the Middle Ages to the nineteenth century. The pass was part of the border between the two countries from the annexation of Savoy to the Second French Empire in 1861 until the 1947 Treaty of Paris , but is now located completely in France. The treaty allowed Savoy to retrieve its historical and political boundaries. It has historically been part of Route nationale 6 . A road over

1225-480: Was the first ever railway based on the Fell mountain railway system and was worked by English engine-drivers. The Fréjus Rail Tunnel acquired the alternative, and geographically incorrect, name of Mont Cenis Tunnel because the traffic which formerly used the Mont Cenis Pass was transferred to it. When the Kingdom of Sardinia -Piedmont ceded Savoy to France in 1860, the Mont Cenis became a frontier pass, and consequently,

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