How is a mountain excavated? What jobs lay behind the construction of a 53-km-long railway line? What skills are required?

To explain this, we created a HowWebuild video series, a six-part tech series that chronicles the Terzo Valico dei Giovi construction site from the inside, analysing the progress of the work and delving into its various facets with our colleagues working on it.

In the first episode of HowWebuild we discover together the traditional excavation techniques of a major infrastructure, which will allow trains to travel at a maximum speed of 250 km/h, crossing the provinces of Genoa and Alessandria and affecting 12 municipalities until reaching Milan.

The new high-capacity Milan-Genoa line is a largely underground route: starting from Genoa, the first section, the so-called Valico Tunnel, develops 27 kilometers in tunnels. If all secondary line interconnections are also considered, the project involves the construction of 90 kilometers of tunnels. Excavations are, therefore, a central part of the work. Out of the total of 90 kilometers of tunnels built, 28 of them are dug with TBMs and the remaining 62 with traditional methods.