Trans Apennine MilestoneThe 6.25 m-diameter Wirth TB 630 E/TS TBM driving the 10 km-long Ginori exploration tunnel on Italy's Trans Apennine railway has broken through on time, after three years work. Ginori is located at the south end of the 78.5 km Bologna-Firenze link, between Sesto Fiorentino and Vaglia, and is parallel to the drill/blast 13.1 m-diameter 18 km-long Vaglia running tunnel. An average daily advance of 28 m was recorded in the difficult limestone and marl geology.Contractor CAVET (Consorzio Alta Velocità Emilia Toscana) is also using two Wirth Paurat T 3.20 roadheaders, equipped with telescopic boom for cutting wide cross-sections in medium to hard rock. These machines have a cutting head powered by a 300 kW water-cooled electric motor, and can cut to 7.63 m-high and 8.96 m-wide, with 1 m undercut. Click it/22. Visit www.wirth-europe.com and www.tav.it 50/03.