After four and a half years of work, the Albert II tunnel that connects the Jardin Exotique Boulevard to Boulevard Rainier III was opened to traffic on Monday at 3 pm.
A blessing of the work done by the Vicar General Guillaume Paris, was held discreetly in the morning with Mr. Olivier Lavagna, Director of Public Works. Technically this tunnel is unidirectional in a lane with a length of over 1,700 meters with a width of 6.10 m and a clear height of 4.50 m. The book has a slope of 6%. The elevation of the upstream point is about 201 meters, that of the downstream point 24 meters. The reference speed as the outgoing Rainier III tunnel is 50km/h. Its realization involved more than two hundred people, required the excavation of nearly 400,000 tons of rock and use of 250,000 tons of concrete, corresponding to 5 times the amount used to perform the new Yacht Club. Its cost amounted to 106.50 million euros. Safety is a key element of this work which has 8 fire shelters spaced 200 meters; 32 fire niches spaced 50 meters apart; a gallery parallel to the tunnel to access the emergency services and road connecting with the tunnel Rainier III. A safe device complemented by the establishment of a fiber optic fire detection and automatic incident detection system by analyzing CCTV footage from 22 cameras. In this assembly, adds an underground plant ventilation at both ends of the tunnel.
The expected traffic in the tunnel is 12 700 vehicles / day, including 1300 trucks. It should help significantly reduce traffic on the route Boulevard du Jardin Exotique, Boulevard Rainier III, Prince Pierre avenue and on the Basse Corniche. If necessary the direction of the tunnel can be reversed. Refurbishment works were carried out upstream and downstream head head to allow this inversion.