The contract for the line, between the stations at Caltanissetta Xirbi and Nuova Enna, is Lot 4a of a new high-capacity railway that will link the Sicilian capital Palermo with the city of Catania on the island’s east coast.
The client is Rete Ferroviaria Italiana (RFI), the public company that owns and maintains Italy’s railway network, and the project is financed by the Italian government’s National Recovery and Resilience Plan.
The contracting body is a joint venture between Webuild with 75% and Ghella with the remaining 25%.
The new railway is expected to reduce travel times between Palermo and Catania by a third, from three hours to two.
As well as being an important project for Sicily and Italy, the new railway, (which will eventually link Palermo with Catania and Messina in the north-east) will also form part of the Scandinavian-Mediterranean Corridor of the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T).
The latest contract brings to five the number of lots, or sections, to be developed by Webuild on the Palermo-Catania-Messina railway. The contractor has already won the Bicocca-Catenanuova and Nuova Enna-Dittaino sections between Palermo and Catania, and the Taormina-Giampilieri and Fiumefreddo-Taormina/Letojanni section between Catania and Messina.
The five contracts have a combined value of approximately €3.6bn. Webuild estimates that these five lots will create up to 4,300 jobs, directly and indirectly, with the direct involvement of more than 580 suppliers, half of which are from southern Italy and the island itself.
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