The René Konen Tunnel (french: Tunnel René Konen), colloquially known as the Saint Esprit Tunnel (french: Tunnel du St-Esprit, lb, Helleg-Geescht-Tunnel), is a road

tunnel A tunnel is an underground passageway, dug through surrounding soil, earth or rock, and enclosed except for the entrance and exit, commonly at each end. A pipeline is not a tunnel, though some recent tunnels have used immersed tube cons ...

Luxembourg City Luxembourg ( lb, Lëtzebuerg; french: Luxembourg; german: Luxemburg), also known as Luxembourg City ( lb, Stad Lëtzebuerg, link=no or ; french: Ville de Luxembourg, link=no; german: Stadt Luxemburg, link=no or ), is the capital city of the Lu ...

in southern

Luxembourg Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...

. It carries two

lane In road transport, a lane is part of a roadway that is designated to be used by a single line of vehicles to control and guide drivers and reduce traffic conflicts. Most public roads (highways) have at least two lanes, one for traffic in each ...

s of

one-way traffic One-way traffic (or uni-directional traffic) is traffic that moves in a single direction. A one-way street is a street either facilitating only one-way traffic, or designed to direct vehicles to move in one direction. One-way streets typical ...

northwards, under

Ville Haute Ville Haute ( lb, Uewerstad, german: Oberstadt) is a quarter in central Luxembourg City, in southern Luxembourg. It is the historic center of Luxembourg City and is involved in its UNESCO World Heritage Site status. , Ville Haute has a population ...

, bypassing the narrow streets and

pedestrian zone Pedestrian zones (also known as auto-free zones and car-free zones, as pedestrian precincts in British English, and as pedestrian malls in the United States and Australia) are areas of a city or town reserved for pedestrian-only use and in whi ...

in the heart of the city. At the southern end (), the tunnel is fed by the

Passerelle Passerelle may refer to: * Passerelle (Luxembourg), a bridge in the city of Luxembourg * '' La Passerelle'', a newspaper in Besançon, France * Passerelle (theatre), a semicircular ramp or catwalk that extends from the stage of a theater around the ...

, which carries traffic from Gare, on the southern side of the

Pétrusse The Pétrusse (; lb, Péitruss, german: Petruss) is a river flowing through Luxembourg, joining the Alzette at Luxembourg City. It flows through the town of Hollerich Hollerich ( lb, Hollerech) is a quarter in south-western Luxembourg City, i ...

valley. The tunnel's entrance is under the Judiciary City. At 100 metres (330 ft), the tunnel bears to its right, passes under the

Chambre des Députés Chamber of Deputies (french: Chambre des députés) was a parliamentary body in France in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries: * 1814–1848 during the Bourbon Restoration and the July Monarchy, the Chamber of Deputies was the lower house ...

() and heads back to the left in a long, sweeping bend. At its northern end (), the tunnel emerges just to the west of the

Alzette The Alzette (; ; ) is a river with a length of in France and Luxembourg. It is a right tributary of the Sauer (a tributary to the Moselle), and ultimately to the Rhine. It rises in Thil near the town Villerupt in the Meurthe-et-Moselle ''dé ...

valley. The road onto which it leads then divides into two, feeding the

Boulevard Royal Boulevard Royal is a street in Luxembourg City, in southern Luxembourg. The boulevard is a one-way traffic, one-way arterial road that runs around the northern and western parts of the city centre, Ville Haute. Besides its importance as one of L ...

to the west and the ''Côte d'Eich'' to the north. On November 5, 1998, it was officially named after

René Konen René 'Boy' Konen (23 April 1921 – 14 November 1994) was a Luxembourgish politician and government minister. He served as Minister for Public Works under Pierre Werner, between 1979 and 1984. Before this, he had been President of the Democrat ...

, a member of the

Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to: *Democratic Party (United States) Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to: Active parties Africa *Botswana Democratic Party *Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea *Gabonese Democratic Party *Demo ...

, who served from 1979 until 1984 as Minister for Public Works in the

Pierre Werner Pierre Werner (29 December 1913 – 24 June 2002) was a Luxembourgian politician in the Christian Social People's Party (CSV) who was the 18th Prime Minister from 1959 to 1974 and from 1979 to 1984. Training and early activities Pierre Werne ...

cabinet, and who initiated the tunnel's construction.

Footnotes

External links

* Arrêté ministériel du 5 novembre 1998 portant dénomination de la jonction souterraine entre le Viaduc et la Côte d’Eic

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Rene Konen Tunnel Tunnels in Luxembourg Buildings and structures in Luxembourg City Transport in Luxembourg City Road tunnels