Best bid selected for 22.5km Brenner extension 09 Mar 2021

The first-ranked proposal for a 22.5km high-speed rail line from the southern end of the Brenner Baseline at Fortezza to Ponte Gardena is submitted by Webuild Group-Implenia JV. The new €1.07 billion line will be mostly underground and is a part of plans by Italian rail infrastructure management company, Rete Ferroviaria Italiana, to upgrade the 180km line between Fortezza and Verona. It is expected to come into service at the same time as the Brenner link.

22.5km underground continuation on Brenner rail corridor

The design-build contract includes twin bore single-track alignments of 15.4km and 6.3km, connected by a viaduct over the Isarco River, as well as underground interconnections and other works at Ponte Gardena.

Located on the Munich-Verona rail axis, the Fortezza-Ponte Gardena project will help improve north-south connectivity, expanding capacity of the existing line between Fortezza and Verona with trains able to run at higher speeds. It forms part of the 9,400km Scandinavia-Mediterranean Corridor of the Trans-European Network, T-ENT, which aims to improve rail connections across the EU.

The Fortezza-Ponte Gardena project is the fourth major construction contract associated with the Brenner project for Webuild. The company is already working on construction of the Mules 2-3 lot, the main section at the Italian end, and Lot Tulfes-Pfons, with excavation of 113km of tunnels between them, as well as a crossing under the Isarco River, near the southern end and before Fortezza Station.

The company is also involved in underground construction on the high-speed rail line between Naples and Bari, also within the T-ENT Scandinavia-Mediterranean Corridor, and the Terzo Valico dei Giovi high-speed line between Genoa, Turin and Milan, a part of the T-ENT Rhine Alpine Corridor to link the ports of Rotterdam and Genoa.