Description
There is a toll to use the tunnel, payable in full even for drivers who already display on their vehicles a Swiss motorway sticker. The tunnel comprises a section of the E27 route linking Belfort with Aosta.
For most of its 5,798 metres length the tunnel runs in a straight line, but incorporating a gentle slope. The northern end is 1,918 m (6,293 ft) above sea level while the southern end is only 1,875 m (6,152 ft) above sea level. At both ends, the approach road to the tunnel is covered by a gallery / avalanche shelter in order to minimize the risk of access to the tunnel being temporarily blocked during bad weather. Any frontier formalities are handled at the tunnel's north end, although the actual national frontier is 2,938 m (9,639 ft) from the Swiss tunnel entrance and 2,860 m (9,380 ft) from the Italian entrance.
The name of the tunnel comes directly from that of the Grand St Bernard Pass, and thereby indirectly from the saint who in 1049 founded the hospice high above the tunnel, that also bears his name. Tourists on the Swiss side additionally find themselves reminded by road side billboards of the saint's association with St Bernard dogs.
Read more about this topic: Great St Bernard Tunnel
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