Webuild has announced the imminent launch of three of its TBMs in Italy. Two new TBMs are now ready to begin excavating tunnels through the Southern Apennines on the Rochetta and Orsara tunnel on the Naples-Bari high-speed railway line, whilst a third TBM will be start boring in Sicily on the Taormina Tunnel on the Catania-Messina railway line. All three of the TBMs have been commissioned by the project Client, Rete Ferroviaria Italiana (RFI).
Along the Naples-Bari railway line, the 12m diameter TBM ‘Futura’ begins excavating at Apice (BN) along the Apice-Hirpinia lot, on the 6.4km long Rocchetta Tunnel.
Concurrently, along the Orsara-Bovino section, excavation works on the 10km long Orsara Tunnel, have now begun. TBM ‘Marina’ with a cutterhead of almost 10m diameter, will start excavating from the entrance on the Bari side and use ‘continuous mining’ technology to speed up works
Other work carried out by the Webuild Group along the Naples-Bari railway are proceeding in parallel. On the Apice-Hirpinia section works to excavate the Grottaminarda tunnel has already reached approximately 90% completion; while on the Naples-Cancello section, excavation of the Casalnuovo tunnel continue in hyperbaric conditions, a technique that has been used for the very first time in Italy.
The future line between Naples and Bari will measure 145km in total. Once works are finished as scheduled, in 2028, it will be possible to travel between these two cities in just two hours against the current four hours.
In Sicily, TBM ‘Lucia’ has begun excavating the 6.1km long Taormina Tunnel from Trappitello (ME). The TBM has a diameter of over 9m and also uses the ‘continuous mining’ system. The precast concrete segments that line the tunnel are produced at Webuild’s innovative “Roboplant” factory in Belpasso.
Works on the Palermo-Catania-Messina route continue apace, where Webuild is undertaking seven railway projects for 200km of network, with 175km of tunnels. The entire infrastructure will allow, when fully operating, a reduction in travel times to two hours between Catania and Palermo (60 minutes less than currently), and to 45 minutes between Messina and Catania (a reduction of 30 minutes).
The Webuild Group reports it has 58 TBMs being assembled, ordered and to be ordered for planned projects. In Italy, a total of some 40 TBMs are foreseen to be used: of these, 31 will be in the South of Italy, where Webuild says it is carrying out 19 projects.
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