On 22/06/2022 the last breakthrough was held for the 4km Monte Aglio tunnel, linking Maddaloni and Valle di Maddaloni, on the Cancello-Frasso Telesino section of the Naples-Bari High Speed/High Capacity line. Thanks to the completion of the tunnel and other civil works along the section, and with the initial phase of activation of the Cancello-Frasso Telesino line, it will be possible to use the direct connection between Naples and Bari by 2024.
The new line, part of the European TEN-T Scandinavia-Mediterranean Railway Corridor and financed with funds from the PNRR (Italy’s National Recovery and Resilience Plan), represents the first and most advanced work that the FS Group’s Infrastructure Hub is carrying out to upgrade the railway network in Southern Italy. Its completion speeds up and improves the direct transversal connection between the Tyrrhenian and Adriatic Sea, whilst bettering connections between Puglia and the innermost provinces of Campania with the Milan-Rome-Naples High Speed/High Capacity line.
Work on the entire Cancello-Frasso Telesino section consists in doubling and speeding up the line for a length of about 16 km, developing along a new line between Cancello and Valle di Maddaloni (6 km) and retracing the current route for the Valle di Maddaloni-Frasso Telesino section (9 km). In addition, the construction of the new Valle Maddaloni and Frasso Telesino/Dugenta stops is also planned.
In 2017 RFI awarded to the CFT Consortium, including Impresa Pizzarotti & C. SpA, Itinera SpA and Ghella SpA the contract for the Cancello-Frasso Telesino section, under the supervision of Italferr. Excavation was completed using traditional methods, adopting monitoring systems that allowed work to be carried out in complete safety – 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Overall, progress along this section is currently at 60%.
The Naples-Bari High Speed/High-Capacity line, for which Rete Ferroviaria Italiana is the client and Italferr is responsible for the preliminary and final design, has a total cost of EUR 5.8 bn. It is also being financed with PNRR (Italy’s National Recovery and Resilience Plan) funds. By 2027, upon completion of the last Hirpinia-Orsara railway lot, the journey from Puglia to Naples and Rome will be even quicker. Indeed, it will be possible to depart from Bari and reach Naples in 2 hours or Rome in 3 hours and head from Lecce or Taranto to the capital in 4 hours. Before this date, however, progressive reductions in journey times are expected, thanks to the phased opening of the new sections of the line, starting with the new direct connection in 2024.
The commissarial management activities facilitated a significant acceleration of the works, leading to the completion in 2017 of the first two interventions along the route: the Naples/Afragola interchange and the Bovino-Cervaro railway lot. At present, the sections of Napoli-Cancello, Cancello-Frasso, Frasso-Telese, Telese-San Lorenzo, San Lorenzo-Vitulano and Apice-Hirpinia are in the construction phase, whilst from July 2022, work will also begin on the Hirpinia-Orsara and Orsara-Bovino railway lots.
Click here for a video and it/251 for tunnelbuilder archive. Visit https://www.fsitaliane.it/. 27/22.
