WeBuild and CSC, announced that the Herrenknecht tunnel boring machine (TBM) named Lilia successfully complete the factory acceptance test and is ready to begin excavating one of the longest sections of the main tunnels of the Brenner Base Tunnel on Austrian territory.

The the Factory Acceptance Test was conducted at the Herrenknecht workshops at Schwanau, in Germany. It is one of the two TBMs that will be used to build Lot H41 Gola del Sill-Pfons. With its twin sister "Ida", with a cutting-head more than 10 m (32 ft) in diameter, it will face approximately 8.2 km (5 miles)separating the assembly cavern, at the southern end of the lot.

The H41 Gola del Sil-Pfons, with an overall value of €651 million, was awarded to the Webuild Group last year in a joint venture with Implenia. To build it, it will directly employ 400 workers. Webuild participates in the project with its Swiss subsidiary CSC Costruzioni, with an overall stake of 50 percent in the joint venture. The Client is BBT SE, a European listed company aimed at building the Brenner Base Tunnel, the railway line that will allow overcoming the natural barrier of the Alps between Italy and Austria.

The Brenner Base Tunnel measures an overall 64 km (40 miles) becoming the world's longest railway tunnel. It is one of the most significant and priority infrastructure projects currently being built in Europe, a junction of the European SCAN-MED (Scandinavian-Mediterranean) corridor.

Lot H41 foresees a section of the Brenner Base Tunnel in Austria and consists in the construction of the railway from Gola del Sill near the city of Innsbruck in the north, to the town of Pfons located further south. It will excavate 22.5 km (14 miles) of main tunnels and 38 transversal underground passages with an overall length of approximately 2.3 km. The tunnels that have been already excavated in the previous lots will also be lined, and also the underground emergency stop at Innsbruck, the access window, the explorative tunnel and other portions of secondary tunnels.

The construction project of Lot H41 started last January. Currently, the excavation activities of the assembly caverns, present in the emergency stop of Innsbruck and building the partition wall of the interconnection tunnels are being carried out.

Webuild, is already working on the Isarco Underpass and Mules 2-3 lots of the Brenner Base Tunnel. In Austria, it has already built the Tulfes-Pfons Lot. Webuild is also committed to building the southern access sections to the Brenner Base Tunnels, between Fortezza and Ponte Gardena.

 Photo credit BBT