Bolzano, 20 June 2025
With the start-up of the Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) Kathrin, work continues on Lot 1 'Fortezza - Ponte Gardena', the first functional lot of the quadrupling project on the Fortezza - Verona railway line.
THE TBM - Approximately 140 metres long, it is equipped with 11 motors generating a power of 3.85 Megawatts, and is one of the four moles that will work on the tunnel system in Lot 1. With a 9.68-metre-diameter cutter head, Kathrin will excavate the main branch of the Funes construction window, and then complete the entire excavation of the Gardena tunnel tube plus an interconnection tunnel, for a total development of approximately 9 km. Afterwards, the mole will be disassembled and transported to the specially-constructed Funes chamber. After being installed anew, the TBM will excavate the second tube of the Gardena tunnel, and a second interconnection tunnel, for a total length of about 8 km. The TBM will work 24 hours a day, seven days a week, employing over 100 highly specialised workers.
LOT 1 - Fortezza-Ponte Gardena, completed by the Dolomiti Consortium led by Webuild, is the first functional lot of the quadruplication works on the Fortezza-Verona railway line, which will be the southern access route to the Brenner Base Tunnel. The lot includes the construction of two natural tunnels - 'Scaleres' and 'Gardena’ - which will be excavated by accessing three other side tunnels (known as construction windows) from Forch, Funes and Chiusa. In particular, the Funes construction window, functional for the excavation of the Gardena Tunnel, is divided into two branches: the main one constructed with mechanised TBM excavation, and the secondary one obtained with traditional excavation. Once the line quadrupling project is completed, the Funes window will serve as emergency entry/exit. The project, encompassing a total investment of more than EUR 1.5 billions, will be activated on schedule for the completion of the Brenner Base Tunnel.
THE PROJECT - The project to upgrade the Verona - Fortezza railway line is part of the 'Scandinavian - Mediterranean' Corridor of the TEN-T network. It constitutes
an infrastructural intervention to increase the quantity and quality of railway supply, and meet future transport demand, in particular, by increasing freight transport capacity. The benefits can be summarised as increased performance levels with a significant recovery of journey times at corridor level, improved regularity and punctuality standards, and separation of rail traffic flows.
CANTIERI PARLANTI - The quadruplication works on the Fortezza - Verona line is one of the strategic projects of Cantieri Parlanti, an initiative by FS Group (with the companies RFI and Italferr), conducted in cooperation with the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport, under the aegis of the Extraordinary Government Commissioner Paola Firmi. FS Group's construction sites 'speak' a simple, transparent and immediate language, shared with the communities, to tell their story and mission and to make citizens and stakeholders more aware and up-to-date on the importance of the works underway.