In mid-September 2025, TBM Barbara (85 m long and weighing 2,000 t) completed the excavation and lining—using 726 rings—of the Forch construction window (1.3 km), part of Lot 1 - Fortezza to Ponte Gardena. This is a key element of the project to quadruple the Fortezza - Verona railway line, which falls under the strategic projects of the Cantieri Parlanti, an initiative by the FS Group (with RFI and Italferr), carried out in collaboration with the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport and overseen by the Government Commissioner Paola Firmi.
Lot 1 - Fortezza to Ponte Gardena, developed by the Dolomiti Consortium led by Webuild, is the first operational lot of the quadrupling project. It will serve as the southern access route to the Brenner Base Tunnel. This lot includes the construction of two rock tunnels, Scaleres and Gardena, to be excavated via three side tunnels (called construction windows) located at Forch, Funes and Chiusa.
TBM Barbara, which passed under SS 12, the A22 motorway, and the Brenner railway line—at depths ranging from 16 to 23 meters—is now set to be dismantled. Work will now proceed with the next phases, focusing on the excavation of the main line tunnels: Scaleres - from the Fortezza rail junction to the valley crossing near Funes station - and Gardena, extending to Ponte Gardena station.
The Scaleres tunnel will be constructed from the Forch window: heading south using two new TBMs - named Renate and Magdalena, currently being assembled underground - and heading north toward Fortezza using traditional excavation methods.
On June 20, 2025, TBM Kathrin was also put into operation. Measuring approximately 140 m in length with a diameter of 9.68 m, it is powered by 11 motors generating a total of 3.85 megawatts. It is one of four TBMs to be used in excavating the 22.5 km of tunnels that make up Lot 1 - Fortezza to Ponte Gardena.
TBM Kathrin is currently excavating the main branch of the Funes construction window, from where it will complete the excavation of one tube of the Gardena tunnel and an interconnection tunnel, for a total length of approximately 9 km. After that, the TBM will be dismantled and moved to the Funes cavern, specially built for this purpose. Once reassembled, it will excavate the second tube of the Gardena tunnel and a second interconnection tunnel, totalling around 8 km.
The Funes construction window - key to the excavation of the Gardena tunnel - is divided into two branches: a main one excavated using mechanized TBM methods and a secondary one using traditional excavation methods.
Once the railway quadrupling project is completed, the Funes window will serve as an emergency access/exit point for the Gardena tunnel, while the Forch window will serve as an emergency access/exit for the future Scaleres tunnel.
The project, with a total investment of over EUR1.5 billion, is scheduled to be completed in line with the timeline for the opening of the Brenner Base Tunnel.
For further information, click it/270 for tunnelbuilder archive. Visit https://www.rfi.it. 38/25.
