Contract awarded for lot “H53 Pfons-Brenner”

Vienna, 04.04.2023 – This is the largest construction lot in Austrian history: The construction company BBT SE has awarded the contract for the construction of the Pfons-Brenner tunnel section to a consortium of PORR Bau GmbH and Graz-based MARTI GmbH and MARTI Tunnel AG. The contract is worth EUR 959m.

“We are delighted to be tackling this project of the century with our partner MARTI”, said PORR CEO Karl-Heinz Strauss. “The Brenner Base Tunnel is a key response to the core issue of mobility that Europe needs to address”.

Its far-reaching expertise in tunnelling enabled PORR to win out with the best bid in the tender process. Strauss adds: “We have reorganised our team and will now complete this section quickly. As a link between Austria and Italy, the Brenner Base Tunnel needs to play its key part in the European transport network as soon as possible”.

Full speed ahead through the mountains

The construction of the Pfons-Brenner section (lot H53) will take around six years. The scope of the contract includes two single-track main tunnel tubes with a total length of 25.2 km. The PORR - MARTI consortium will use two tunnel boring machines (TBMs) as well as blasting. The TBMs have an excavation diameter of 10.37 m, allowing them to cover a distance of up to 30 m per day. In addition to the main tunnels, another 3.6 km of exploratory and cross-cut tunnels are planned.

The new contract is not PORR’s only construction lot for the Brenner Base Tunnel: The company is also building the approximately 600-metre-long link between the tunnel and Innsbruck’s main railway station through the Sill Gorge with construction lot H21. Completion of the Sill Gorge section is planned for 2024.
 

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