Strabag court win seals Italian highway deal
Mar 2012
Peter Kenyon, TunnelTalk
- Strabag of Austria is awarded four lots worth €1.7 billion (US$2.2 billion) on the Lombard Pedemontana Highway Project.
- A contract has finally been signed between the Client, Autostrada Lombarda Pedemontana, and a Strabag-led JV that also comprises Italian firms Grandi Lavori Fincosit and Impresa Construzioni Giuseppe Maltauro.
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Autostrada Lombarda alignment
- The agreement comes after an Italian administrative court rejected a request from a rival JV, led by Impregilo and including Astaldi and Pizzarottito, to freeze the contract. The contract had originally been awarded to the Strabag-led JV.
- Delays in finally sealing the deal – for the major sections of an east-west motorway between Bergamo and Milan in Northern Italy – had threatened Milan's hosting of EXPO 2015.
- A spokesman for the Client said: "With the decision of the Regional Administrative Court the risk of losing EXPO 2015 is allayed. By signing the contract we can still deliver the highway on time but we will now have to operate to a tight deadline. Final designs will take a further three months."
- Strabag says it will start construction work in the summer and has promised it can deliver the project in time for the Exhibition.
- Lots B1, B2, C and D comprises 52km of new dual carriage motorway, and 50km of spur and connecting roads on the existing network. To complete the work Strabag will construct 51 cut-and-cover tunnels to a total length of 13km, the largest being 1km long.
- Strabag told TunnelTalk that four bored tunnels totalling 3.6km will also be constructed using the Adecco RS Italian tunnelling method, with a face of 180m2.
- Separate lots for the construction of bypasses around Como and Varese have already been let, and work on these has already been started. The challenging terrain will pose a number of engineering and environmental challenges, but the new road is considered necessary to move traffic off the minor road network.
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