Rome, 18 May 2021
Through its subsidiary RFI, the FS Italiane Group has hit the accelerator on the realisation of the High Speed Verona–Padua line. With the signing of a new agreement today with the Consortium Iricav Due, works can actually start a few months ahead of the planned roadmap on the second and last construction lot of the Verona–Vicenza junction route, with a total value of 1,776 million euro, to be initiated at the same time as the final design of the crossing of Vicenza. As the railway line immediately following, it constitutes the natural continuation of the line to the east and leads to the heart of the Vicenza capital. The Final Design is scheduled to be completed by 10 September 2021.
With the resources found with the Ministry of Infrastructure and Sustainable Mobility, the acceleration marked by FS is aimed at allowing activation of this “Verona–Vicenza Junction Functional Lot” by 2026, being part of the works proposed in the National Recovery and Resilience Plan sent by the Italian Government to Brussels.
Considered as a priority also in the 2020 Economy and Finance Document, the work constitutes a fundamental feature of the broader TEN-T “Mediterranean” trans-European Corridor and extends FS Italiane’s current HS/CA network.
This was all made possible thanks to the FS Italiane Group (through RFI) and the Iricav Due Consortium (as the General Contractor constituted by Webuild S.p.A., Astaldi, Hitachi Rail STS, Lamaro Appalti S.p.A. and Fintecna S.p.A.) having signed the Second Amendment Deed to the Supplementary Deed of 6 August 2020, which had allowed works to commence on the first of the two lots of the HS/CA Verona–Padua line, as the initial Verona–Vicenza Junction Functional Lot. The signing of this “Modifying Deed” thus also sees works start on the second and last Construction Lot, having a lifetime value, being inclusive of all ancillary costs and totalling 1,766 million euro.
Now fully under construction, the Verona–Vicenza Junction line is characterised by a lifetime cost of 2,470 million euro and works with a duration of 74 months, extending some 44 kilometres in the Veneto Region and articulated as follows:
- 1st Construction Lot, amounting to 984 million euro, which includes the realisation of part of the civil works, as well as the railway superstructure and technological facilities preparatory to the activation of the deviations along the Historical Milan–Venice Line;
- 2nd Construction Lot, amounting to 1,776 million euro, which sees the completion of civil works along with the realisation of the armament and technologies of the entire Lot.