At 1.45 pm on 19 May the diaphragm between the two construction lots of Mules and the Isarco Underpass in the Brenner Base Tunnel fell, and the workers of the two fronts were able to meet. A 24-kilometer connection was thus created without interruption from the south portal of Fortezza to the Brenner: a section that is part of the 64 kilometers of line that will connect Fortezza to Innsbruck.
The Italian-Austrian company in charge of the construction of the Brenner Base Tunnel, which has a length of 55 km (64 km considering the existing Innsbruck bypass), is BBT SE controlled, for the Italian part, by RFI (FS Group). and from the provinces of Bolzano, Trento and Verona through the company TFB (Brenner Railway Tunnel).
It is the longest underground rail link in the world. In total, 151 of the 230 kilometers of tunnels planned in total have been excavated to date.
1,600 workers and 1,000 suppliers involved
The diaphragm separated lot H71 Isarco Underpass (built by Webuild, currently working on four lots of the Brenner Base Tunnel, three of which under construction and one completed, more than any other company involved in the overall project) and Lot Mules 2 -3 (created by Webuild, in collaboration with Ghella), on the Italian side of the Brenner Base Tunnel. The three lots under construction are expected to employ approximately 1,600 workers and to involve a supply chain which, only for lots H71 and H61 on the Italian side, has about a thousand direct suppliers, almost all local.
The work is strategic for the creation of the TENT-T network, the European high-speed / high-capacity European network, capable of transporting people and goods across the continent, and destined to increase sustainable mobility between member countries, reducing CO2 emissions.