The contract, worth €651m, was awarded last November to a joint venture comprising Webuild and its Swiss subsidiary CSC Costruzioni, which have a 50% stake, and Swiss company Implenia, which has the other 50% share.
The client is BBT SE, a European public limited company created for the development of the railway tunnel between Italy and Austria under the Alps.
Lot H41 involves a section of the Brenner Base Tunnel in Austria and consists of the construction of the railway from Gola del Sill, near Innsbruck, south to the town of Pfons. The contract includes 22.5km of main tunnel tubes and 38 cross passages with a total length of about 2.3km, in addition to the lining of the walls of already completed tunnels, an underground emergency stop at Innsbruck, access tunnels, exploratory tunnels and parts of other secondary tunnels. Lot H41 will be accessed mainly from the existing Ahrental lateral access tunnel and is expected to be completed in summer 2028.
Excavation will be carried out by two TBMS, among the most sophisticated in the sector, with a diameter of more than 10m. The design of the project focuses on environmental sustainability during construction and measures include the logistics of the work sites designed to reduce travel times for the transport of materials, and dust and noise reduction.
Webuild is also working on the construction of other lots of the Brenner Base Tunnel, such as Lot H71 Isarco River Underpass and Lot H61 Mules 2-3. It has already completed work on the 43.3km Lot 33 Tulfes-Pfons. The company is also working on the railway between Fortezza and Ponte Gardena south of the tunnel.
Once completed, the Brenner Base Tunnel will be the longest railway tunnel in the world at 64km. It will be a key part of the Scandinavian-Mediterranean Corridor of the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) which will connect Helsinki in Finland and La Valletta in Malta. It also plays an important role in connecting Italy and Austria with a high-speed/high-capacity railway.
