Webuild/Ghella win €1.32bn Sicilian rail contract
7 June 2023Webuild, and its consortium partner Ghella, has won a €1.32bn (US$1.41bn) contract to work on another section of Sicily’s new high-capacity railway between Palermo and Catania.
Lot 1+2 comprises construction of 30km of new railway to double the Fiumetorto-Lercara Junction. The works include 20km of parallel tunnels, more than 2km of road and rail viaducts, over 7km of roads, and three stations. One of the stations – Valle del Torto – will be new and the other two – Cerda and Lercara – will be upgraded. Four TBMs will be used on the contract.
Webuild leads the consortium with a 75% stake, including 5% held by its Seli Overseas subsidiary, while Ghella has 25%, including 10% owned by its subsidiary TunnelPro.
The new Palermo-Catania-Messina axis is a strategic project for Sicily and Italy, and part of the Scandinavian-Mediterranean Corridor of the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T). It will reduce travel times between Palermo and Catania by 60 minutes to two hours. It is commissioned by Rete Ferroviaria Italiana of Gruppo FS Italiane and financed by the National Recovery and Resilience Plan.
Lot 1+2 brings to seven the number of lots Webuild, with other Italian companies, has secured on the railway project. They include Lot 1 Fiumefreddo-Taormina/Letojanni (15.4km) and Lot 2 Taormina-Giampilieri (28.4km) between Catania and Messina; and Lot 3 Lercara-Caltanissetta Xirbi (47km), Lot 4A Caltanissetta Xirbi-Nuova Enna (27km); Lot 4B Nuova Enna-Dittaino (15km) and Bicocca-Catenanuova (38km) between Palermo and Catania.
