The European homeland

A single market and free movement are the pillars of the European Union, officially established in 1993 with the Maastricht Treaty, already envisioned by its pioneers amid the rubble of World War II. A happy ending after nearly 2,000 years of tension and conflict spanning the long history of the old continent: from the glories of Ancient Rome to the Barbarian Invasions, from the Carolingian Empire to the Europe of the Crusades, from the French Revolution to the World Wars.

What really unites Europe as we know it today, however, in its longest period of peace, are, first and foremost, its connections. It is no coincidence that one of the strategic axes of EU policy is the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T), a single great interconnected network from Finland to Malta, from Berlin to Palermo. This includes the new railway line from Munich to Verona, the pivot of which is the Brenner Base Tunnel. With its 55 km of tunnels from Fortezza to Innsbruck, which connect with the existing railway around the Austrian city, reaching an overall length of 64 km, the Brenner is the longest underground rail link in the world, located in a strategic and symbolic area at the heart of the European Union.

The tunnel will be crossed by high-capacity high-speed freight and passenger trains in just 25 minutes, a reduction of 69% from the current 80-minute travel time. A remarkable engineering feat, involving the excavation of 1,150,000 m3 of earth and rock, the use of 280,000 m3 of concrete, and consolidation of the terrain with techniques like Quick Set Jet Grouting (QSJG) and Roto Injection Controlled Parameters (RICP), as well as pre-consolidation of the soil through freezing for the Isarco River Underpass section.

A great example of collaboration between Austria and Italy, this crucial link between the Mediterranean region and Northern Europe also has considerable benefits for the environment, not only because of the zero impact that the movement of all the materials needed for the work has on the territory, but also because of the significant reduction in CO₂ emissions: it has been estimated that use of the Brenner Base Tunnel will eliminate 466,000 tons of carbon emissions a year.

The project lots include the excavation of 38 km of tunnels (completed) in the Tulfes-Pfons section in Innsbruck; Mules 2-3, with the excavation of 65 km of tunnels; and the Isarco River Underpass, 5.8 km of railway tunnels (completed) starting in Fortezza and running 240 meters below the river bed. This was the most technically complex part of the entire project, requiring injections of chemical and cement mixtures and ground freezing with liquid nitrogen. A truly extraordinary undertaking given the technical and engineering difficulties; as Jacques Chirac said, «The construction of Europe is an art: the art of the possible», and in this case, of the impossible too.