On Wednesday, 26 July 2023 – at the Campo Marte site at Florence - excavation work began on the Florence HS rail link that will involve the city's railway underpass and the new Florence Belfiore HS station. In the first few days, the TBM drove an initial section necessary for assembly then backed-up and ready for a restart without further stops.  

For the railway underpass - between the Campo di Marte station in Florence and the viale XI Agosto area, located near Rifredi and Castello stations –a 7km twin-tube tunnel will be driven at a 20 m deep with safety by-pass every 500 m.  Meanwhile works will continue at the Belfiore construction site for the excavation of the new high-speed station.  

In the construction of the Florence high-speed bypass - for the first time - the muck will travel by rail, thanks to the trains of Mercitalia, leader of the FS Group Logistics Pole, which have already begun to transport the first concrete segments that will form the rings for tunnel lining. Each ring is made up of six segments. A total of 46,000 segments will arrive by train from the Lucignano plant, where they are produced.  

The excavation will lead to the overall production of approximately 1,670,800 cubic metres of excavated materials, of which 1,350,000 cubic metres will be delivered to the S. Barbara mining area and reused in a sustainable manner for the construction of the so-called 'Screen Hill' in the Enel area.  

Rete Ferroviaria Italiana is the client, while Italferr has been assigned the management of the works, which will be carried out by the Florentia Consortium (made up of the companies Pizzarotti and Saipem). Completion of the work is scheduled for 2028 for a total investment of approximately EUR 2.7 billion. For further on the project click here and it/22 for tunnelbuilder archive. Visit https://www.rfi.it/ and https://www.italferr.it/.  31/23.