| Work Detail |
Aurora, a 100-metre-long tunnel boring machine (TBM) has begun excavating the 2 km Grottaminarda tunnel on the Apice – Hirpinia section of the new Naples – Bari high-speed / high-capacity line.
The 5-month digging activities are carried out by the Webuild Group through the Hirpinia AV Consortium, with Italferr as the works manager. The TBM, which has a cutting head over 12 metres in diameter and is the largest currently in operation in Italy, will excavate an average of 15 metres per day in the direction of Apice, where it is expected to arrive in early 2024.
The Grottaminarda tunnel is one of the three tunnels to be built on the Apice – Hirpinia rail section with a length of 18 km, 12 km of which are to be built underground. The TBM will excavate 7 days a week with an average progress of 16 metres per day. The use of mechanised excavation brings important advantages on the entire construction site system of the works, allowing the excavation of the Grottaminarda and Melito tunnels in sequence starting from a single site located at the entrance on the Bari side, greatly reducing the impact of the construction sites intermediate in the area. More than 100 highly specialised people are employed to ensure continuous excavation, divided into 4 teams.
The Apice-Hirpinia section will connect the towns of Avellino and Benevento and includes the construction of a station at Hirpinia and a stop at Apice, three tunnels and four viaducts.
The works of the section have an investment of EUR 628 million.
The Naples – Bari high-speed high-capacity railway is part of the Scandinavia-Mediterranean core network corridor and is the first and most advanced work that the Polo Infrastrutture (Infrastructure Pole) of FS. The project for the construction of the new line is estimated at EUR 5.8 billion and is finasnced by funds from Italy’s PNRR. The project is expected to be completed by 2027 when will provide connection between Tyrrhenian (western coast of Italy) and Adriatic (eastern coast of Italy) seas, the rail links of Puglia and the more internal provinces of Campania with the Milan – Rome – Naples high-speed high-capacity line.
Due to its complexity, the Naples – Bari project is split into several sections. The design and works for the 15.5 km Naples – Cancello double track section started in 2016 and are expected to be completed in 2024, and the commercial services are planned to start in February 2025. The section will bring rail service to the new Napoli Afragola station, designed as a transfer hub between regional and high-speed services delivering increased access to rail services in Naples. The project also includes the construction of the Acerra station and Casalnuovo and Centro Commerciale urban stations.
The Cancello – Frasso Telesino section is expected to be opened in June 2024. The EUR 312 contract for this section was signed in 2017 with a consortium comprising Pizzarotti Itinera and Ghella. This project includes the construction of a 16 km double track section of which about 3 km of viaducts and over 4 km of natural tunnels running two new stops are also planned at Valle di Maddaloni and Dugenta- Frasso Telesino, to serve the area around Caserta and offer a direct connection to Naples, Bari and Benevento.
Between Frasso Telesino and Apice, the works are split into doubled track sections, with Frasso T. – Telese expected to enter services in April 2025 and Telese – S. Lorenzo Maggiore in July 2026. Works cover Frasso Telesino – Vitulano route which includes Telese – San Lorenzo and San Lorenzo – Vitulano sections. After the construction works, the new double track sections will provide improved connection in the province of Benevento. In March 2023, excavation of the tunnels on the Telese – Vitulano section has started, doubling the railway line between Frasso Telesino and Vitulano (in Benevento) by overlapping the existing corridor for about 30 km, partly as a variant and partly alongside. Four new stops will be built, and Telese station will be reconstructed. The tunneling works are carried out by Consorzio Telese Scarl under a EUR 470 million contract.
The Apice – Hirpinia section would enter services in December 2026, followed by Hirpinia – Orsara expected to provide passenger services from august 2027.
The project of Hirpinia – Orsara section covers the construction of 28 km of line, of which 27 km built underground, allowing trains to run at 250 km/h. In 2021, Rete Ferroviaria Italiana awarded a EUR 1 billion contract to the consortium of Webuild (leader, 70%) and Pizzarotti (30%). The project consists of Hirpinia tunnel (27.1 km) and Cervaro Viaduct (314 metres).
The 11.8 km Orsara – Bovino project was awarded in 2021 to Webuild – Pizzarotti under a EUR 367.2 million contract and is expected to be opened in December 2026. The project will double the capacity of the existing single-track section, passing for the most part through a tunnel of 10 km in length. The project also comprises a temporary connection of a double-rail line with the historic one for 1.08 kilometres, supporting trains travelling at speeds of up to 90 km/h.
On the Naples – Bari high-speed project, Webuild Group is involved in the construction of Apice – Hirpinia, Napoli – Cancello and Hirpinia – Orsara sections.
Since August 2022, all the construction sites of the new 145 km Naples – Bari railway line have been under construction. Upon completion of the work, the line will reduce travel time by two hours from 4 hours to a 2-hour journey only, whilst the Rome – Bari connection will take 3 hours, as a saving of about two hours compared to now. |
