Rete Ferroviaria Italiana (RFI) awarded a Webuild-led consortium a EUR 934 million contract to build a rail bypass in Trento under Lot 3A as one of the accesses to the Brenner Base Tunnel project.
Webuild consortium is created together with Ghella (35%) and Collini with 10%. Webuild has a 51% stake with subsidiary SELI at 4% totalling 55% stake in the consortium.
Webuild will lead the design and construction of approximately 13 km of rail line, nearly all of it underground, as part of a quadrupling of the Fortezza – Verona section of the high-speed railway south of the Brenner Base Tunnel. The contract is to create approximately 1,000 jobs, directly and indirectly, with a significant involvement of the supply chain.
The contract includes the construction of a natural tunnel, the Trento Tunnel, of approximately 10.6 km in length, and two short sections above ground alongside the existing line. Four tunnel-boring machines (TBMs) will be deployed to excavate the tunnel, with two working at either end of the projected tunnel. The rate of excavation is to reach between 15 and 20 metres a day, helping accelerate the work.
The rail bypass in Trento, known in Italian as the “Circonvallazione di Trento”, will be part of the southern access to the Brenner Base Tunnel. The south access line comprises Lot 1 (covering the Fortezza – Ponte Gardena section), Lot 2 (Circonvallazione di Bolzano), Lot 3 (Circonvallazione di Trento e Rovereto), Lot 4 (Verona junction), Lot 5 (Bronzolo – Trento Nord), Lot 6 (Rovereto – Pescantina) and Lot 7 (Ponte Gardena – Prato Isarco section). Webuild is working on three of the five sections or lots of the Brenner Base Tunnel including the Mules 2-3 and Isarco River underpass in Italy, and Gola del Sil – Pfons in Austria. The group has completed Lot Tulfes – Pfons in Austria, while working on the Fortezza – Ponte Gardena access line in Italy that also is part of the connection between Munich and Verona.
Lot 3A, which has been identified as a strategic project for the development of sustainable mobility in Italy under the National Plan for Recovery and Resilience, will contribute to improving the international transport of cargo and the improvement of the country’s competitiveness. The Trento bypass has a value of EUR 960 million, of which EUR 930 million are provided from the PNRR. According to RFI, the construction will have a duration of approximately three and a half years – two of which will be necessary for the construction of the underground works.
The Lot 3A is part of project to quadruple Fortezza – Verona railway on the strategic Munich – Verona corridor which will significantly increase the capacity and traffic flows on the line.
The rail line belongs to the strategic Munich – Verona corridor, as well as a broader programme to upgrade transport services in the city such as the NorduS project covering upgrade and extension of Trento – Malè railway line to become the city’s public transport backbone along the Trento North – South axis, connecting the main poles of the Municipality traffic attraction (Trento North, Trento Center, New Hospital). The rail bypass in Trento, another project for transport development in the city, is expected to reduce more than 65,000 tonnes of CO2 every year.
The bypass will restore a modern and resilient infrastructure with environmental, economic and social benefits through contribution to the modal shift of freight transport from road to rail, with consequent road decongestion, improvement of air quality and mitigation of climate change. The project will also make international freight transport more efficient and will improve the competitiveness of Italy’s freight traffic with other European countries. In addition, the project will strengthen the connections to support current and future business activities, with development opportunities for the logistics sector, combined transport, as well as the import and export market.
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