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Autoroute A1, soon to become a six-laner

Image: Swiss highway department

Morges, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The final stage of the the roadworks on the A1 autoroute between Morges and Ecublens begins early October when workers put in place a new electronic road signage system, to be completed in December 2009. The Swiss Federal Roads Office (Fedro) announced 30 September that the roadworks will require them to close the autoroute at night at times. It involves adding traffic density sensors that will determine when a third lane in each direction should open. Details of the closures will be given ahead of time.

The current 10-35 minute delays between Aubonne and Lausanne (direction: Lausanne) are expected to drop to 5-20 minutes for the last three months of the year, matching the delays heading in the other direction.

The first three stages involved reinforcing the emergency strip to take a full load of traffic and building three new emergency stop areas instead. These stages have now come to an end on schedule and will allow a third lane in each direction to be opened when needed. Fedro says that this pilot project may become a template for similar stretches of autoroute in Switzerland which have heavy traffic at peak times.

Once the autoroute roadworks are completed the A1 between Morges and Lausanne will have four lanes and a speed limit of 120kph during normal traffic periods, but the speed will be lowered to 100 or 80 and a third lane opened if more traffic calls for it, with arrows signalling if lanes are opened. During normal times the third lane will serve as a regular emergency area, for breakdowns, and it will be illegal to drive there.