RFI - Webuild: for the first time in Italy the hyperbaric excavation of the Casalnuovo Gallery on the high -speed/high capacity railway line Naples -Bari starts

In the summer, the start of the excavation of the Galleries Rocchetta and Orsara

Best Practice at European level, the excavations will be carried out by entering the compressed area to maintain the water ground outside the work areas At the end of the works on the entire Naples-Bari, scheduled in 2028, it will be possible to connect Naples and Bari in 2 hours, against the approximately 4 current, and Rome and Bari in 3 hours.

Naples, 21 May 2024-An innovative and sustainable excavation technique starts for the first time in Italy on the high-speed/high railway capacity of the Naples-Bari railway: it is the excavation in the hyperbaric atmosphere started by Webuild on the Naples-Cancello lot , commissioned by the Italian Railway Network - RFI leading company of the Infrastructure Pole of the FS Group, for the construction of a stretch of the Casalnuovo artificial gallery that partially develops underfalda.

Fundamental feature of hyperbaric excavation is the use of compressed air as a method for carrying out excavation operations in the presence of water. The pressure introduced on the site allows you to maintain the water outside the work areas, ensuring advantages also from an environmental point of view, avoiding to put in contact with the slope with cement mixtures and chemical additives. About 650 meters of the new gallery, which crosses a highly urbanized territory, are carved tirelessly, 7 days a week, 24 hours a day, thanks to this new technique that represents one of the few applications for this type of work also at European level.

The entry into the hyperbaric regime of the workers, adequately trained, takes place through gradual adaptation operations in a special compensation chamber which provides for a maximum capacity of 20 workers in turn, in which the gradual compression phase takes place that lasts on average 20 minutes. The pressure, depending on the excavation phases, will oscillate between 0.3 and about 1.2 atmospheres. All activities are carried out by adopting procedures and specific technical and health protocols that allow to guarantee maximum safety and health of the workers during the work phases.

The construction site of the Casalnuovo Gallery, whose term of the works is scheduled for mid -2025, involved the preparation of a complex and innovative plant area, developed with the involvement of specialized technicians and highly qualified international suppliers.

Webuild works, commissioned by the Italian railway network, also proceed in parallel on the other lots of the line. In fact, two new TBM (Boring Machine tunnel) are currently under assembly phase which will be used for the start of the excavation-scheduled in the summer-of the Rocchetta Gallery (Apice-Hirpinia Lot), about 6.4 km long, and the Orsara Gallery (odd barrel of the Lotto Orsara - Bovino) about 10 km long. Meanwhile, the excavation of the Grottaminarda Gallery, about 2 km long, which has now been built for about 60% of the route and whose completion is also expected to be continued on the Apice-Hirpinia lot.

In total, the future line of the high speed between Naples and Bari will have a length of 145 km, with 9 tunnels (including the Hirpinia Gallery, about 27 km long, which will compete with the Valley gallery in Genoa the primacy of Gallery Più long of Italy), 25 viaducts and 16 between new stations and stops

At the end of the works on the entire Naples-Bari, scheduled in 2028, it will be possible to connect Naples and Bari in 2 hours, against the approximately 4 current, and Rome and Bari in 3 hours.

There It will also bring significant benefits in terms of environmental sustainability, allowing to avoid over 3 million tons of CO2 emissions in the period 2023-2047. On the AV/AC Napoli-Bari, Webuild is engaged in the creation of four lots: ,, and the . With these 4 lots, overall, Webuild is creating over 74 km of the new railway line, 6 galleries for whose construction is expected to use 8 TBMs, 10 viaducts for about 6 km and 6 between new stations and stops: Acerra, Casalnuovo, Hirpinia and Orsara, shopping center and peak. To complete the works on the 4 Webuild lots it takes over 1,700 people to date, while the production chain from the start of works sees the involvement of about 1,500 companies.

The AV/AC Napoli-Bari is one of the 19 projects that webuild is creating in the South, including islands, which provide for the construction of over 300 km of high-speed railway line and which today occupy 5,450 people, between direct staff and of third parties, and involve a chain of 4,300 companies from the start of works.