On 28/03/2023 an important milestone was reached for the Brenner Base Tunnel, on the Italian side, at the Mules (BZ) construction site.
After 14 km of excavation and almost 4 years of activity, the TBM Virginia completed the excavation of the eastern main tunnel installing 56,800 prefabricated segments and reaching the border with Austria.
The participants - during the official ceremony - were able to watch the installation at 12h35 of the last prefabricated segment, dyed for the occasion with the national colors of Italy and Austria.
The TBM is over 200 m long, weighing 2750 t and with an engine power of 4200 kW - started on 22 May 2019 from the assembly chamber advancing towards the Brenner Pass.
The H61 Mules 2-3 construction lot, awarded by the project company BBT SE to Webuild and Ghella, is the largest lot of the entire Brenner Base Tunnel project and includes a tunnel system of approximately 65 km 91% of which have been completed.
During its journey within this lot the TBM Virginia excavated a daily average of 10.2 m, reaching a maximum of 40.5 m in one day on February, 16th 2020.
The record, for which Virginia set itself apart from all other existing machines of comparable boring head diameter (10.71 m), was set in March 2021. In one month, Virginia excavated an impressive 859.50 m.
The construction of the Brenner Base Tunnel project, which extends for approximately 230 km, with 157 km of tunnels already excavated.
The Brenner Base Tunnel will connect Italy to Austria across the Alps, from Fortezza to Innsbruck, reducing journey times by almost 70%, from the current 80 minutes to 25 minutes. With its total length of 64 km, the tunnel is an integral part of the Scandinavian-Mediterranean Corridor, a fundamental element of the TEN-T trans-European transport network.
For further information in the tunnelbuilder archives on the BBT project please click here, at/16 and it/103. Visit https://www.bbt-se.com/, https://www.webuildgroup.com/, https://www.ghella.com and https://www.rfi.it/. 13/23.
