The company – formerly Salini Impregilo – is set to win the design-build contract for the 22.5km high-capacity line between Fortezza and Ponte Gardena in Italy.
The selection comes after Webuild was recently announced as best bidder for a €1.26bn project to design and build sections B2 and C of the Pedemontant Lombarda highway project, bringing to about €2.3bn the combined value of the two new possible projects.
Webuild has a 51% stake in the consortium leading the bidding for the rail contract, with Implenia as its partner. The work is being commissioned by Rete Ferroviaria Italiana (RFI).
The project will expand by four times, mostly underground, the Verona-Fortezza line at the southern end of the Brenner Base Tunnel along the Munich-Verona railway axis. It will also include underground interconnections and other works as well as improving the Munich-Verona line by adopting standards that exceed the speed and performance limits. The existing line currently obliges trains to travel at relatively slower speeds, especially on inclines.
Webuild is already working on three major construction sites for the Brenner Base Tunnel: Mules 2-3, the main section at the Italian end of the tunnel with 75km of tunnels; Lot Tulfes-Pfons, which includes underground civil works for 38km of tunnels; and the underground crossing of the Isarco River, near the southern exit of the Brenner Base Tunnel before the Fortezza station.
The 64km Brenner Base Tunnel will become the longest railway tunnel in the world and a key part of the Scandinavian-Mediterranean Corridor of the Trans-European Network (TEN-T), aimed at improving railway connections across the continent.
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