17/03/2021 - Webuild S.p.A.: Safety and sustainability at the Brenner Base Tunnel. Webuild to use liquid nitrogen to freeze key underpass section of world’s longest railway tunnel

MILAN, March 16, 2021 - Webuild has started using a special application to allow workers to excavate a tunnel under the Isarco River safely and sustainably without having to divert the natural course of the river. The Group is overseeing the use of liquid nitrogen to freeze the ground along the second of four tunnels being excavated for the underpass, the most important task at the southernmost end of the Brenner Base Tunnel project. The first tunnel was completed in December 2020. When including the ring around Innsbruck that leads to Munich, the Brenner will be the longest railway tunnel in the world at 64 kilometres. Once completed, it will be an exemplary piece of infrastructure for sustainable mobility in Europe, creating an axis between Verona and Munich.

Webuild is the leader of the joint-venture with Strabag AG, Strabag S.p.A., Collini Lavori S.p.A. and Consorzio Integra responsible for the construction of these four tunnels that will serve two railways for a high-speed/high-capacity train service and two other railways that will connect with the existing railway. By freezing the ground, workers can proceed with the excavation of the second tunnel without being hindered by water infiltration.

For the excavation of the first gallery, they used 3.4 million litres of liquid nitrogen delivered by trucks from facilities in northern Italy and Australia. The rate of delivery was one an hour for seven days. Once the freezing is complete, the excavation work will proceed along with the strengthening of the walls for about 50 metres.

Webuild is also working on two other major sites for the Brenner Base Tunnel: the Mules 2-3, the main section at the Italian end of the tunnel; and the Lot Tulfes-Pfons in Austria that includes underground civil works. The Group was recently selected as best bidder to design and build a €1.07-billion high-capacity railway for about 22.5 kilometres extending from the Brenner Base Tunnel between Fortezza and Ponte Gardena.

The Brenner Base Tunnel will be a key part of the Scandinavian-Mediterranean Corridor of the Trans-European Network (TEN-T) that will improve transport connections across the continent. Webuild is involved in a number of sustainable mobility projects related to TEN-T in Italy and abroad. For the Scandinavia-Mediterranean Corridor, it is working on the Naples-Cancello and Apice-Hirpinia sections of the high-speed/high-capacity between Naples and Bari. In Sicily, it is working on the Bicocca-Catenanuova section of the Palermo-Catania rail line. Along the TEN-T's Rhine-Alpine Corridor, which will link the ports of Genoa and Rotterdam, there is the Terzo Valico dei Giovi, a high-speed/high-capacity railway among Genoa, Turin and Milan.