By ashleykaren
Webuild (70%) and Pizzarotti (30%), an Italian consortium has been announced the best bidder for the US$445m design-build Orsara-Bovino contract which contains significant tunnelling.
Being a part of an upgrade to the Naples-Bari high-speed railway in the south of the country, the 11.8km section of line in question contains the construction of twin-tubed 9,871m-long tunnels in which trains will pass at speeds of up to 250kmh.
Commissioned by Italy’s railway infrastructure manager (Rete Ferroviaria Italiana) the project has the purpose to almost double the capacity of the current single-rail train service through that section. It is designed to decrease the travel time between Bari and Naples to just two hours. Also, it is going to help decreasing the journey time between Bari and Milan to six hours, therefore improving transport connections between southern and northern Italy.
It is anticipated from the project to supply up to 5,000 jobs and comes under the government’s Piano Nazionale di Ripresa and Resilienza (National Plan of Recovery and Resilience) which has the purpose to stimulate employment and modernize infrastructure.
