If you usually drive to Normandy on the A13 highway, get ready to change your plans in the coming months.
A13 Highway: A Strategic Paris Region Corridor That Will Be Closed for Months
From November 16, 2026 indeed, the Saint-Cloud tunnel will enter a long shutdown in the Paris-to-province direction, between the Boulevard Périphérique and the Vaucresson interchange. A cut that will last until the end of August 2027, i.e., nearly nine months during which one of the capital’s major exit routes will be amputated of its most strategic stretch. This is going to require a rethink of your logistics. The schedule is organized in two phases. In the first phase, only the Paris-outbound direction is affected: in the other direction, heading back toward the capital, traffic remains possible. But the summer of 2027 will change the game. In July and August, the A13 will be closed in both directions, while works on the Saint-Cloud viaduct are carried out. Vacationers and Francilians who want to reach the Normandy coast or simply the Yvelines will therefore have to contend with one of these route changes, right in the middle of the summer season. Disruptions will be especially pronounced during peak hours, on weekends and during school holidays, precisely when the roads are already saturated.
Several possible detour routes
To avoid chaos, two major detour routes are proposed from the beltway. The first goes south: you take the RN118, then the RN12, the A86 and finally the A12, which lets you reach the A13 on its still-open portion, while serving Versailles from the south. The second goes north, via the RN13 then the A14, which also opens onto the usable stretch of the A13. A third option, longer still, involves taking the RN315 and then the A15 to reach Val-d’Oise and, from there, Normandy. However, note these routes will not always be accessible. Night closures, between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m., may occur to comply with tunnel-safety regulations. It’s best to check Sytadin, the government-run site for travel information, before hitting the road. And as for the temptation to bypass the jams via local back roads, the DIR of Île-de-France warns against it: secondary networks are likely to become very heavily congested, and restrictions on passenger-transport vehicles may also apply.
But then, why such a project? The north tube of the Saint-Cloud tunnel dates back to the 1930s, and it needs reinforcement work to improve safety and prolong its lifespan. The operation also aims to prepare the passage, in 2027, of the TBM for the future Grand Paris Express Line 15 West, between Pont de Sèvres and Saint-Denis Pleyel. So be it.
