TBM Futura completed the 6.5km-long tunnel in 18 months. Powered by 18 motors with a total output of 6.3MW and equipped with a cutterhead of more than 12m in diameter, the TBM installed over 32,500 precast concrete segments. It advanced through Apennines at an average speed of 16m per day, with peaks exceeding 29m.
The Rocchetta is the second drive to be completed on the section. TBM Aurora completed excavation of the Grottaminarda Tunnel in September 2024.
Excavation of the third and final tunnel of the section – the 4.4km Melito Tunnel – will begin by summer.
RFI’s Naples-Bari line will include 145km of new railway tracks, with 15 tunnels and 25 viaducts. It will have 20 stations and stops along its route.
The Apice-Hirpinia section will run 18.7km across the provinces of Avellino and Benevento, with 13km through tunnels. It constitutes the central part of the Naples-Bari line, crossing a region that is complex in structural and geomorphological terms.
Webuild is responsible for four lots on the Naples-Bari line. On the 15.5km Naples-Cancello section, track laying has been completed. Testing is under way and the line is expected to be put into service this summer.
Webuild is also building the 28km Hirpinia-Orsara section, 27km of which are underground, and the 11.8km Orsara-Bovino section, which includes a 9.9km tunnel.
