During 1862, Richardson spent time in the European Alps to study the latest tunnel construction techniques and equipment on the Fréjus Rail Tunnel project.
The construction, directed by Germain Sommeiller, was scheduled to take 25 years, but was completed in only 14 years thanks to technical innovations such as pneumatic drilling machines and electrical ignition of explosive charges.
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The Fréjus tunnel remains today as an important link in the connection between Rome and Paris, via Turin and Chambéry.
He was President of the Mont Cenis Railway Company which built the first Fell railway and operated it from 1868-1871 to provide a temporary route over the Alps for rail passengers from Calais to Brindisi until the completion of the Fréjus Rail Tunnel.
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The A43 autoroute and a railway line enter at the western end from the Isère valley, and leave at Modane using the Fréjus Road and Rail Tunnels respectively which both emerge at Bardonecchia in Italy.
Two rolling highways are currently in operation in France, both using French Modalohr technology: the 175 km Autoroute Ferroviaire Alpin, connecting the Savoy region to Turin through the Fréjus Rail Tunnel owned and operated jointly by SNCF and Trenitalia, and the 1,050 km Lorry-Rail which connects Bettembourg, Luxembourg, to Perpignan operated by SNCF.
Commissioned by the King of Sardinia in 1845 to dig the Fréjus Rail Tunnel between France and Italy through the Alps, Maus had it built in 1846 in an arms factory near Turin.