It carries the LGV Est line of France's TGV high-speed rail network through the narrowest part of the Vosges mountain range, beneath Mont Saint-Michel and adjacent to the Saverne Pass.

Civil engineering work on the tunnel ended in April 2014 and it opened with the rest of the second phase of the LGV Est on 3 July 2016.

[8] to connect Paris and Strasbourg—the principal city of the Grand Est region and home to several European institutions, including the Council of Europe.

[7][11] The line was originally built for Réseau Ferré de France (RFF), which owned and operated the infrastructure of the French national railway network.

Lot 47 consisted of the Saverne Tunnel, the adjacent Haspelbaechel viaduct, and an additional 3.3 kilometres (2.1 mi) of the LGV line through the communes of Danne-et-Quatre-Vents in Moselle and Eckartswiller, Saint-Jean-Saverne, and Ernolsheim-lès-Saverne in Bas-Rhin.

[8] In September 2010, RFF awarded a €184.3 million design-build contract for Lot 47 to a consortium of 13 companies, led by Dodin Campenon-Bernard [fr].

[16] The 730,000 m3 (26,000,000 cu ft)[16] of earth excavated during tunneling was used to construct embankments in nearby sections of the LGV Est line.

[2] The tunnel lies beneath Mont Saint-Michel, beside the Col de Saverne, and within the Northern Vosges Regional Nature Park, a Natura 2000 site.