The TBM, delivered for the Xenia consortium comprising Webuild, Ghella, Tunnel Pro and Pizzarotti, will excavate 3km of the Saginara tunnel, located between Campagna and Contursi Terme. It will take two to three months to reassemble the TBM.
The 13.46m-diameter machine is 130m long and weighs 4,000 tonnes. It is equipped with 18 motors generating a total of 10MW of power. It is the largest TBM ever to be used by Webuild in Europe.
The three further TBMs will arrive over the next few months.
Webuild has reconditioned one of the TBMs after it was used on the Grand Paris Express in the French capital. Webuild carried out the work at its new facility in Terni, which specialises in remanufacturing TBMs and other machinery.
Lot 1A of the Salerno-Reggio Calabria high-speed rail line involves the design and construction of 35km of new railway between the towns of Battipaglia and Romagnano. The project includes the construction of 20 tunnels – eight to be excavated using four TBMs – and 19 viaducts, in addition to a planned junction in Romagnano to allow the new line to interconnect with the existing line, which runs from Battipaglia towards Metaponto and Potenza.
The high-speed line will allow trains to travel at speeds up to 300km per hour.
