The heart of the Ligurian Apennines has been almost completely perforated. With the demolition of the last diaphragm on the Castagnola-Vallemme section, the Terzo Valico dei Giovi project completes one of the most important steps in its long construction history. An advancement that concretely brings the goal closer: connecting Genoa and Milan in less than an hour thanks to a new high-capacity railway infrastructure intended to redesign the connections between ports, industrial cities and European logistics corridors.
The section just completed was considered by the experts to be one of the most critical of the entire work. Here the teams working on the construction sites had to face extremely difficult geological conditions, working hundreds of meters deep among unstable rocks, infiltrations and the constant presence of natural gas underground.
Complex excavations between safety and advanced technology
The route crosses the area between Voltaggio and Fraconalto, in the province of Alessandria, for approximately 2.8 kilometers on each track. A segment that required an enormous organizational machine, coordinated by the general contractor Webuild on behalf of RFI – Italian Railway Network.
To avoid slowdowns and guarantee the safety of the workers, the works were carried out simultaneously on four excavation fronts, using advanced monitoring systems and special protocols against the risk linked to the gases present in the mountain. A construction site defined by many technicians as a true underground engineering laboratory.
With this new milestone, the Terzo Valico reaches impressive numbers: over 83 kilometers of tunnels have already been completed out of the total 86.9 kilometers envisaged by the project. In practice, the tunnel system is now 96% excavated.
Faster travel and more freight on the tracks
The infrastructure, integrated with the Genoa railway hub, is included in the Rhine-Alpine Corridor of the TEN-T network, a strategic axis that connects the Ligurian ports to the industrial heart of Northern Europe. The most evident benefits will be seen after the total completion of the work, expected in the first months of 2027, while the definitive integration with the Genoa Hub will arrive by 2030.
At that point passenger trains will be able to reach 250 kilometers per hour, drastically reducing travel times: around 55 minutes between Genoa and Milan and just over an hour between Genoa and Turin. But the transformation won’t just affect passengers. In fact, the Third Crossing aims to shift a growing share of freight traffic from road to rail, relieving congested motorways and ports with a clear benefit also for the environment.
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