A Webuild-led consortium has completed excavation of the Caterina Tunnel, the first tunnel on Lot 1A of the Salerno-Reggio Calabria high-speed/high-capacity railway in Italy.
The tunnel’s completion marks a major advancement in the €1.6bn ($1.86bn) project to strengthen railway connections between southern and northern Italy.
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Under contract from RFI (FS Italiane Group), the consortium has overseen work in Salerno province, where Lot 1A includes the development of 20 tunnels and 19 viaducts as part of the wider Scandinavian-Mediterranean Corridor within the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T).
The Caterina Tunnel, measuring over 1km in length, was excavated using an updated tunnel-boring machine (TBM) named ‘Mireille’.
Weighing 1,200 tonnes and equipped with a cutterhead more than 10m in diameter, Mireille previously operated on the Grand Paris Express before being refurbished at Webuild’s dedicated facility in Umbria.
During the Caterina excavation, a team of more than 100 technicians operated and maintained the machine in continuous shifts.
The TBM is scheduled for relocation over 400m in the coming months to begin tunnelling for the Sicignano Tunnel, expected to run for a further 2.5km.
Other ongoing works include the excavation of the Cerreta Tunnel, which is 450m long and employs traditional digging methods, as well as the construction of piers and abutments for forthcoming viaducts, which will eventually facilitate the movement of tunnelling machinery to subsequent locations.
Three additional TBMs, called ‘Partenope’, ‘Leucosia’, and ‘Ligea’, are currently in use on Lot 1A.
With cutterheads exceeding 13m in width, they are the largest of their type that Webuild has in operation across Europe.
Each machine is engaged in separate stretches of the railway, with Partenope excavating the Saginara Tunnel between Campagna and Contursi Terme, Leucosia focusing on the Serra Lunga and then the Acerra and Petrolla tunnels, and Ligea working on the Piano Grasso before moving to the Contursi Tunnel. More than 300 technicians support the TBMs across these various sites.
Lot 1A is managed by the Xenia consortium, comprising Webuild as lead, along with partners Pizzarotti, Ghella and Tunnel Pro, and employs over 1,400 people, including both direct employees and subcontractors. The project has also engaged over 500 suppliers since its commencement.
The Salerno-Reggio Calabria section forms part of the Scandinavian-Mediterranean Corridor within the TEN-T.
Elsewhere on the Salerno-Reggio Calabria corridor, Webuild is progressing on the Cosenza-Paola/San Lucido track-widening scheme, which involves the construction of more than 22km of new railway track, including the 15km-long Santomarco Tunnel.
Together, the two regional lots are among 21 projects Webuild is implementing in southern Italy.
These works are valued at over €16bn and have employed more than 10,200 individuals, including third-party personnel, and have involved 7,500 suppliers since construction began.
Across the Salerno-Reggio Calabria high-speed line, the group expects to deliver about 60km of modern railway.
