By Lynda Myer
Considering a breakthrough on the Valico Tunnel, over than 82% of tunneling process for the Terzo Valico dei Giovi-Genoa Junction Combined Project has been completed by Webuild.
The milestone was celebrated with the breakthrough of a tunnel wall in one of the tunnels between the Polcevera and Cravasco jobsites.
Following its completion, this tunnel with 27km length is due to be Italy’s longest rail tunnel. The southern end of the planned tunnels in the Liguria region was the location of commencing digging process and this breakthrough indicates implementation of 30km of twin-bore tunneling so far. In order to approaching the northern end of the project in the Piemonte region, the alignment travels beneath a mountain range.
Emphasizing on the teams’ safety record on a project, Webuild chief executive Pietro Salini described the project as a virtual bridge between the port of Genoa and the rest of Italy and Europe and said: “We began work on the project in 2012 at a very difficult site where the best resources and companies of Italy are involved every day. It is thanks to them that we have had an accident rate 40% lower than the national average, but we need to focus on reducing it to zero.”
While the total length of the new high-speed/high-capacity Terzo Valico railway will be 53km, 70% of it is going to be run in three tunnels and the longest one is due to be the Valico. Decreasing train travel times between Genoa and Milan by 33%, it is slated to be part of the Rhine-Alpine Corridor of the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T).
