By Rose Bell
As the first time that this technique has been used in Italy, the hyperbaric tunneling on the Naples-Bari high-speed railway line is implementing by Webuild.
While the aim is using the hyperbaric tunneling on almost 650m of the Casalnuovo tunnel on the Naples-Cancello lot of the new railway line, the digging process is due to continue around the clock, beneath a densely urbanised area.
Holding 20 people, the compression chamber takes around 20 minutes to reach the desired pressure, whereas during the excavation the pressure will vary between 0.3 and 1.2.
The estimated date for completion of the construction process of the Casalnuovo tunnel is next year.
The responsibility of advancing four lots on the high-speed rail project, which includes Naples-Cancello, Apice-Hirpinia, Hirpinia-Orsara and Orsara-Bovino, is up to Webuild, and totally it is building 74km of the line, (six tunnels using eight TBMs and 10 viaducts and six stations).
In order to working on the 6.4m-long Rocchetta tunnel on the Apice-Hirpinia lot and the 10km-long Orsara tunnel on the Orsara-Bovina lot, the TBMs are currently being assembled and they are due to be commissioned this summer.
Excavation of the 2km-long Grottaminarda tunnel on the Apice-Hirpinia lot is about 60% complete.
With 145km length, Rete Ferroviaria’s Italiana (RFI) high-speed Naples-Bari line will involve nine tunnels, comprising of the 27km-long Hirpinia tunnel, 25 viaducts and 16 new stations and the scheduled date for its inauguration is 2028. It will halve the journey time between Naples and Bari to two hours, and provide a three-hour rail connection between Rome and Bari.
