Italy: Webuild consortium receives secures €934m rail bypass contract

Trento: Webuild, along with its consortium partners, has received a €934m order for a rail bypass at Lot 3A of a project in Trento, Italy.

This contract has been awarded by Rete Ferroviaria Italiana (RFI) of state rail operator Gruppo FS Italiane.

The consortium partners comprise Ghella with a 35% interest and Collini with a 10% stake.

With a 55% holding in the consortium, Webuild will engage in the design and construction of around 13km of the rail line, of which most of the section is underground.

The rail line is part of a quadrupling of the Fortezza-Verona section of the high-speed railway south of the Brenner Base Tunnel.

This contract is projected to create around 1,000 direct and indirect jobs.

Identified as a strategic project for the development of sustainable mobility in Italy under the National Plan for Recovery and Resilience, Lot 3A is anticipated to enhance the international transport of cargo and improve the country’s competitiveness.

The rail line “belongs to the strategic Munich-Verona corridor, as well as a broader programme to upgrade transport services in Trento such as the bypass, which is expected to reduce more than 65,000 tonnes of CO2 every year.”

Furthermore, the contract covers the construction of a natural tunnel, dubbed Trento Tunnel, which is around 10.6km in length. It also includes the building of two short sections above ground alongside the existing line.

With two working at either end of the projected tunnel, four tunnel-boring machines (TBMs) will be used for the excavation of the tunnel.

The bypass, which is known as Circonvallazione di Trento in Italy, forms part of the southern access to the Brenner Base Tunnel.

Webuild is now working on three of the five sections, including Mules 2-3 and Isarco River Underpass in Italy, as well as Gola del Sil-Pfons in Austria.