Mega tunnels for a high-speed and sustainable Europe

Two projects, one goal: to create a high-speed and sustainable Europe. A total investment of more than EUR 20 billion (just over EUR 10 billion each). Two tunnels that will be completed, almost in parallel, between 2029 and 2032. The first (railway) is being built in the heart of the Alps, under the invisible line dividing Italia and Austria; the second (motorway + railway) is located further north, in the Baltic, where Denmark meets Germany and the sea has always separated peoples and trade routes. Two geological challenges overcome thanks to decades of studies and planning. The Brenner Base Tunnel, which will connect Fortezza (Italy) to Innsbruck (Austria), and the Fehmarenbelt Tunnel, the longest underwater tunnel in the world, are symbolic projects of the Ten-T infrastructure network, destined to change the map of European transport and logistics.

Two engineering excellences that represent, at the same time, political, economic and cultural projects. They shorten geographical distances, but also those between citizens and territories, generating opportunities. The Brenner Pass looks south, integrating the Italian high-speed railway with the German railway axis. The Fehmarnbelt looks north, connecting Scandinavia to central Europe via a new trade route that promotes interchange between Baltic ports and continental markets.

Thanks to the new Brenner rail tunnel, in the construction of which the Webuild Group is also involved (the Italian company is building 50 of the total 64 kilometres), rail travel time between Fortezza and Innsbruck will be halved from two hours to about 50 minutes, eliminating the Alpine slopes that force goods trains to brake and slow down continuously. It is estimated that the Brenner Tunnel will transfer a significant share of freight traffic from road to rail, reducing noise and air pollution that suffocates the Eisack Valley and the Austrian Tyrol.

Equally revolutionary will be the Fehmarnbelt Tunnel. The islands of Fehmarn in Germany and Lolland in Denmark are today joined by ferries that transport thousands of people and trucks every day. But since 2007, with the signing of a bilateral agreement, a project was born to connect them with a tunnel, road and rail, running under the Baltic. Today the ferry crossing takes 45 minutes, to which must be added the waiting time and the time needed for embarkation. With the tunnel, it will be seven minutes by train and 10 minutes by car, making it possible to go from Copenhagen to Hamburg in two and a half hours instead of the current five hours. According to the Danish company managing the project, the new connection will generate economic benefits of around EUR 3 billion for the Danish economy and at least twice that amount when considering the entire Baltic region.

The new railway infrastructure between Italia and Austria, called Bbt (Brenner Base Tunnel), is destined to profoundly change mobility flows between the north and south of the old continent. Currently, the Brenner motorway is one of the most congested in Europe: more than 2.5 million lorries pass through it every year, carrying more than 50 million tonnes of goods. Today, more than 73 per cent of the goods passing through the Brenner Alpine crossing travel by road and only 27 per cent by rail. An unsustainable situation for the Austrian authorities, who over time have imposed a long series of bans on the movement of trucks along the Brenner motorway axis. An obstructive policy that has sent Italia into a rage, prompting the government to lodge an appeal with the European Court of Justice against Vienna for violation of the cardinal principles of the EU (freedom of movement for goods and people). From 2032, when the project is scheduled to come into operation, the current imbalance between road and rail should diminish, allowing the Tyrolean valleys to breathe. Travelling times for passenger trains will decrease from about 85 minutes to 25 minutes on the Brenner section, goods trains will drop from over 100 minutes to about 35 minutes. The train journey between Verona and Munich (Germany) will be shortened by more than two hours, making the train a real alternative to cars and planes over medium distances.