A BIG PROJECT

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 145, 16 December 1933, Page 27

A BIG PROJECT

TUNNEL THROUGH -MONT BLANC"

To drive a tunnel through the heart of Moat Blanc, the highest mountain in Europe, is the gigantic project now being considered by a group of engineers on the Continent, and there is every prospect that their planß will materialise and the work bo commenced in the near future. The proposition has been broached on many occasions during recent years, but has always had to be abandoned owing to financial or other difficulties. But the need for such a tunnel to connect Italy with the north-west of Prance by road is becoming more and more pressing. At the moment the journey presents considerable difficulties for the motorist who wishes to travel by road. Either he must make a long detour along the Kiviera or cross the Swiss Alps by one of the numerous passes. \ These passes lead to an altitude of over 6200 feet and are blocked by snow during the winter months, so the former route is the one more generally used. About two million cars make the journey every year. , . By continuing the Geneva-Chamonix road to the foot of the Aiguilles de Ghamonix and then upwards in zig-zag fashion to a height of 3750 feet above sea level, driving an eight-mile-long tunnel through Mont Blano at this point and then making connection pa the-