The tunnel de l'Étoile is a road tunnel in Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

. It links the avenue des Champs-Élysées to the avenue de la Grande Armée

Avenue de la Grande Armée

The Avenue de la Grande Armée is a street in Paris on the boundary between the 16th and 17th arrondissements. It was formerly named avenue de la Porte Maillot as part of Route nationale 13, but was renamed to its present name in 1864 in honour of the Grande Armée of the Napoleonic Wars.It begins at...

, passing underneath the place Charles-de-Gaulle and the Arc de Triomphe

Arc de Triomphe

-The design:The astylar design is by Jean Chalgrin , in the Neoclassical version of ancient Roman architecture . Major academic sculptors of France are represented in the sculpture of the Arc de Triomphe: Jean-Pierre Cortot; François Rude; Antoine Étex; James Pradier and Philippe Joseph Henri Lemaire...

. It is around 400 metres long and has two one way

One-way traffic

One-way 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.-General signs:...

lanes.

Its entrance has been the site of many road traffic accidents by lorries. In effect the tunnel has a height of 2.4 metres, which is only signalled by a sign hanging above the entrance. Lorries are too high and hit the tunnel roof. No portico can be built on the surface since it would affect the appearance of the Arc de Triomphe and breach the Arc's listing statute. In 2009 an accident occurred there every two weeks.