By Lynda Myer
In order to advancing the Sicily’s Palermo-Catania high-capacity railway, A Webuild and Ghella consortium has been granted a tunneling contract.
Including 20km of tunnels, which’s 90% to be constructed by TBMs, and 3km of viaducts, design and building of the line between Caltanissetta Xirbi and Nuova Enna are the contents of the Lot4A. Also the determined budget for this contract is €1.2bn (US$1.3bn), while 75% of its stake belongs to Webuild and 25% to Ghella.
As a strategic project for Sicily and Italy, the new Palermo-Catania-Messina axis is due to be part of the Scandinavian-Mediterranean Corridor of the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) and it will decrease travel times between Palermo and Catania by 60 minutes to two hours. It is commissioned by Rete Ferroviaria Italiana of Gruppo FS Italiane and financed by the National Recovery and Resilience Plan.
With a combined value of around €3.6bn ($US3.9bn), this contract brings to five the number of lots, or sections, to be developed by Webuild on the Palermo-Catania-Messina axis. The others are the Bicocca-Catenanuova and Nuova Enna-Dittaino lots between Palermo and Catania, and the Taormina-Giampilieri and Fiumefreddo-Taormina/Letojanni lots between Catania and Messina.
