Belate and Almandoz Tunnels

The Belate and Almandoz tunnels are existing structures located in the N-121-A national road. The tunnels have one carriageway in both directions. Therefore the tunnels provide services to both directions by means of a single tube that allows bi-directional traffic. The requirements that the modern tunnels have to comply with today and the new regulations relating to security and safety are different from those that applied when both tunnels were opened in 1997.

In addition, the N-121-A road supports an average daily traffic (ADT) of over 10,000 veh/day, with 28% of heavy vehicles. For all these reasons and considering the value of this communication axis as an element of continuity towards France, the aim of the study consisted of selecting the best alternative to duplicate these tunnels by means of gathering all the necessary data relating to the existing structures and defining different options to be compared through a multi-criteria analysis. This study included the Risk Assessment of the tunnels in accordance with Article 13 of the European Directive 2004/54/CE of the European Parliament and the Council, 29th April 2004. This regulation is applicable to N-121_A road, as it belongs to the trans-European transport network and the length of both tunnels is greater than 500 m (2.982 m Belate tunnel and 1.231 Almandoz tunnel).