A 15-kilometre tunnel will be added to the Southern Italy high-speed rail project

Webuild has signed a €1.6 billion (around 640 billion forints) contract with the Italian railway company Rete Ferroviaria Italiana (RFI) to build a 22 km section of high-speed rail in southern Italy.

According to railwaypro.com reports that the Italian-based multinational construction company, which operates in around 50 countries, is building a double-track, high-speed, high-capacity railway line. The section will be built between Paola and Cosenza, two provincial capitals located on the west coast of southern Italy. The investment is part of a high-speed rail project between Salerno, near Naples, and Reggio Calabria, one of the southernmost points of the Italian peninsula.

Two viaducts will be built next to the tunnel

The development is unique in that around 17 kilometres of the route will be tunneled, with the remaining 5 kilometres being built on the surface.

The new Santomarco tunnel, which will be more than 15 kilometres long, will be the centrepiece of the project. The new tunnel will be located about 100 metres from the existing single-track tunnel, which will be closed down on completion. Four tunnel boring machines (TBMs) will be used to excavate the twin-tube, single-track tunnel.

The development also includes the construction of nine railway bridges and two viaducts. One, 350 metres long, will cross the A2 motorway, while the second, 205 metres long, will cross the Settimo dam. A new station will also be built in Montalto Uffugo, improving access to the university campus in Rende.

Europe's largest tunnel boring machine was also deployed on another section of the line

The project is expected to be completed by 2032. The article also highlights the importance of the railway line to be built: the construction of the Paola-Cosenza section will significantly increase the capacity and efficiency of the rail link between the Tyrrhenian coast and the mainland in the province of Calabria. It will also reinforce the Bari-Taranto-Gioia Tauro freight corridor and will be a key milestone in the completion of the Salerno-Reggio Calabria high-speed rail line.

The article also reveals that Webuild, which will have annual sales of €12 billion in 2024, is also already building section 1A (Battipaglia-Romagnano) on the Salerno-Reggio Calabria line, where the company recently installed Europe's largest tunnel boring machine for digging the Saginara tunnel. All in all, Webuild is building around 60 kilometres of high-speed railway between Salerno and Reggio Calabria.