The annual Easter getaway in Switzerland has been complicated by the adverse weather this year with police in one canton urging drivers to postpone their trips.
Due to heavy snow that fell in parts of Valais in the last 48 hours, the cantonal police is urging tourists heading south for Easter to postpone their travel through that part of the Swiss Alps until Saturday.
“The snowfall has caused numerous disruptions to the road and public transport network,” cantonal police said in a press release on Friday morning.
The Simplon and Grand St-Bernard remain closed, and access to the side valleys “is still heavily impacted,” with some stretches of the roads remaining closed.
Additionally, several communities remain without power, which may lead to mobile network outages.
Also, “due to damage to the high-voltage network, the electricity supply cannot be restored for the time being in the Saas Valley and Mattertal,” police said.
Therefore — and given that “avalanches can occur at any altitude and the danger of falling trees is still high”— authorities ask that travellers abstain from driving through these areas until tomorrow, Saturday April 19th.
Meanwhile, at the Gotthard…
As every year during the Easter weekend, motorists heading to Ticino and Italy via this tunnel have caused a 10-km bottleneck in front of the tunnel’s north portal.
Waiting times are estimated at around two hours.
A reasonable alternate route is the A13 motorway and the San Bernardino tunnel.
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But that’s not all
An avalanche also closed down the Grand-St-Bernard road (A21), so the tunnel connecting Valais with Italy will be of-bounds to all traffic as well until the damage is assessed and user safety guaranteed.
“The closure of this tunnel temporarily interrupts the connection with Italy,” the Federal Road Office (ASTRA) said, adding that another route toward that country, the Simplon Pass (A9), is also closed.
“Initial investigations have shown that the tunnel has some damage. This damage must be assessed further,” according to ASTRA.
The good news though is that the weather is improving, and forecasts for Saturday and Sunday call for partly sunny skies and higher temperatures.
