📋 Tender Overview
- Excavation of the Rocchetta Tunnel of the new HS/HC Naples-Bari line continues, the largest underground work of the Apice-Hirpinia Lot carried out by Webuild on behalf of RFI (FS Italiane Group).
The Futura TBM, a latest generation mechanical mole with a cutter head over 12 meters in diameter, has excavated the first 4 kilometers of the approximately 6.4 kilometer long tunnel, reaching approximately 62% of work progress.
Furthermore, the civil works of the future Hirpinia station have also been completed, which will be organized on two levels with 4 platforms (two central and two on the sides). The station will be served by a dedicated access road, the construction of which has already started in recent weeks, which includes a total of four roundabouts and eight road axes and a new car park. A fundamental hub for connecting the internal areas of Avellino and Benevento to the national high-speed network.
The Apice-Hirpinia Lot extends between the provinces of Avellino and Benevento for 18.7 kilometres, of which 13 are in tunnels, and represents the central section of the future HS/HC Naples-Bari route.
The project is among the numerous works that Webuild is carrying out in Southern Italy, which have a total awarded value of approximately EUR15 billion and for the construction of which it employs approximately 8,700 people, including direct and third-party personnel (as of 30 June 2025), with the involvement of a supply chain of over 7,600 companies from the start of the works. The Naples-Bari HS/AC line is part of the European TEN-T Scandinavian-Mediterranean corridor, representing a strategic infrastructure to improve the connectivity of Southern Italy with the rest of Europe.
Webuild is now preparing for a new significant phase of the Apice-Hirpinia project: in the next few weeks the launching of the reinforced concrete beams of the Ufita-Apice viaduct which will connect the Rocchetta Tunnel to the future Apice stop (Benevento) will begin.
On the lot Webuild has also activated an Advanced Training Center for specialist training in Apice (BN), which also makes use of the training laboratory in Bovino (FG), where the TBM simulator has also been installed which provides a highly realistic environment for the safe training of operators destined for the excavation of complex tunnels.
In total, the future high-speed line between Naples and Bari will have a length of 145 km of new railway, with 15 new tunnels and 25 viaducts, and will serve 20 stations and stops along the route. At the end of the works on the entire route, it will be possible to connect Naples and Bari in 2 hours compared to the current approximately 4, Rome and Bari in 3 hours, while from Lecce and Taranto it will be possible to reach the capital in four hours.
