Toto Costruzioni Generali declared following news in Italian. My English is not enough for good translation. I have used Google translation. I am sorry for mistakes.

TBM Margherita: construction of the Cefalù tunnel begins

Toto Costruzioni Generali starts Margherita, the cutter that will be used for the excavation of the 13.4 km of the tunnel. It is an RFI project that employs about 350 people, including technicians and workers. The work has a value of over 374 million euros.

Cefalù, 3 March 2022 - The excavation of the Cefalù Gallery, the largest of the three tunnels for the doubling of the Cefalù / Ogliastrillo - Castelbuono railway line, began this morning with a ceremony at the Toto site in Ogliastrillo Palermo - Messina. The project has a total extension of 12.3 km, the new double-track and almost entirely underground route runs completely in variant with respect to the old railway site; the project, contracted by Rete Ferroviaria Italiana (RFI) to Toto Costruzioni Generali, has a value of over 374 million euros.

In the presence of the Undersecretary of MIMS for Infrastructures Giancarlo Cancelleri, the Regional Councilor for Infrastructures and Mobility Marco Falcone, the Mayors of Cefalù and Pollina, the Managing Director of RFI Vera Fiorani and the Representatives of the companies in ATI, the the “Margherita” cutter, the Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) that will carry out the excavation and lining of the more than 13 km that make up the two parallel tunnels of the Cefalù Tunnel is in operation. 140 meters long, with a weight of 1650 tons and a total power of 5.6 MW, the mega-cutter is equipped with a rotating head of 10 meters in diameter, equipped with over 60 steel excavation tools, with which it is capable of crushing rock. The excavation of the Cefalù Gallery begins in the direction of Messina. Highly specialized personnel composed of about 100 units will work on the excavation, mostly on board the machine, in three shifts per 24 hours, 7 days a week. Others will be engaged in auxiliary activities, for a total of over 350 workers employed in the construction site . With these numbers, an average daily advance of 16 meters is estimated, with peaks that can exceed 20 meters of excavated and lined tunnel. At this rate, the works in the gallery are expected to be completed by November 2024.

"We have taken on the commitment to carry out this crucial project for Sicily and for the country and today we are here to testify all our concern, the dedication of the technicians and workers, in carrying it out" - said Alfonso Toto, director General Toto CG, during the ceremony. "All the stakeholders of the project, from the customer, to the regional government, to the contracting company, have worked hard over the years to identify the best technical and design solutions and ensure the execution of the works with the utmost respect for the rules, safety and the environment, limiting execution times without sacrificing the quality of the works ".

To deal with the complex geology of the Madonie, the TBM was designed with a dual set-up (dual mode), that is, capable of operating both in "open" mode on the rocky fronts, and in EPB (Earth Pressure Balance) mode to consolidate the front of excavation in the most yielding soils. In addition to reducing construction times, mechanized excavation has the advantage of drastically reducing the risks for the workers inside the machine, who always work in a protected context, from the TBM shield or from the lining already put in place.

The production of the segments that will cover the interior of the tunnel is already at full capacity in the nearby dedicated plant, where about 60 skilled workers are employed. Overall, over 40,000 segments will be prefabricated here to cover the walls of the two tunnels.

The lot, which includes tunnel works for a total of over 17 km, provides, in addition to the construction of the Cefalù tunnel in mechanized excavation, also the construction, with the traditional excavation technique, of the S. Ambrogio tunnel. The latter consists of a single 4 km tunnel that will host a double track. Activities to date have reached 60% completion. The construction of the decks for the two viaducts which are located between the entrances of the two tunnels is also underway. Finally, in the smaller Malpertugio gallery, in Castelbuono, the works at the entrance to Palermo are completed and the excavation proceeds in the opposite direction.

The Cefalù order marks the return to a technology that Toto CG has successfully employed over the past 20 years, working with the largest TBMs in the world and improving performance efficiency each time, thanks to a selected team of industry experts. A skill for which the Company gained international recognition in London, when the project for the Sparvo Gallery, for which the TBM Martina was used, won two awards for numerous production records and the audacity of innovativ and solutions devised. Solutions and knowledge that today are strategic for this project, which will make it possible to connect the important tourist center of Cefalù with the Falcone and Borsellino airport more quickly, safely and efficiently, freeing one of the most famous stretches of the Sicilian coast from the caesura. from the current railway line and the local viability from numerous level crossings.

My resource is link: https://totospa.it/news-e-comunicati/tbm-margherita-al-via-la-costruzione-della-galleria-cefalu/