In January the excavation of the Batuta railway tunnel was completed. It is part of upgrading of the Frontiera-Curtici-Simeria railway line for trains with a maximum speed of 160 km/h. This double track tunnel - located between Barzava and Ilteu - is 603 m long (586 m rock tunnel and 17 m of artificial tunnel) with an excavation diameter of about 20 m. The tunnel also has technological and SOS areas built in. The excavation methods changed according to the geology crossed - for example there were Basaltic type materials for 20% of the route and fissured schists for the remaining 80%. The primary lining in the first section was created by using pre-shotcrete along the tunnel contour, and the execution of radial swellex with double mesh and shotcrete as well as self-drilling bolts. In the following section there were fields of consolidation with micropiles at a diameter 88.9 L 15 m and fiberglass at the excavation face 60/40 L 15 m with ribs with variable radius and overlapping of the consolidations of 5 m. Waterproofing has been carried out by the installation of geotextile and PVC. The assembled formwork was equipped with self-reaction and powered, for the casting, by wheeled pump.For further information click here for tunnelbuilder archive and visit https://www.cipaspa.it, http://www.cfr.ro/ and https://isc.gov.ro. 04/23