Breakthrough on world’s longest railway tunnel

A tunnel-boring machine named Flavia, operated by a consortium led by Webuild for client BBT SE, completed excavation of the 14km exploratory tunnel on the Italian side in May. The breakthrough on the final diaphragm in the tunnel marks the first physical connection across the border and took place around 1,400m below the Brenner Pass.

Once complete, the Brenner Base Tunnel will extend 64km, including the Innsbruck bypass, making it the world’s longest underground railway link. It forms part of the Scandinavian–Mediterranean Corridor of the EU’s Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T), designed to shift freight and passenger traffic from road to rail and reduce Alpine emissions. Passenger services are expected to reach 250km/h, cutting travel time between Fortezza and Innsbruck from 80 minutes to 25.

Webuild is responsible for more than 50km of works across four lots, two of which are already completed. The group is also delivering associated projects for Rete Ferroviaria Italiana, including the Fortezza–Ponte Gardena upgrade and the Trento bypass.

Work on the Brenner Base Tunnel has required complex engineering, including ground-freezing with liquid nitrogen to overcome difficult geology. Webuild chief executive Pietro Salini described the breakthrough as proof of Italy’s infrastructure sector delivering “one of the world’s most complex engineering feats.”