GCF railway superstructures for the Brescia-Treviglio line

GCF “signs” the final section of the HS/HC line to Venice

The new Brescia-Treviglio high-speed line with GCF tracks was inaugurated on Sunday 11 December.

This important section completes high-speed Brescia-Milano connection (27 km on the Milan-Treviglio section were already operative as of 2007) and is a further, essential stage in implementing the important HS/HC Milan-Venice route and, more generally, the TEN-T Mediterranean Core Corridor as an integral part from Spain to the Ukrainian border, crossing Italy from Turin to Trieste.

Five years of work for an overall financial investment of 2 billion euros saw Cepav Due - Eni High Speed Consortium - implement a new line which, as the continuation of the Milan-Treviglio line running in part alongside the Brescia-Bergamo-Milan motorway, now reaches Brescia Central Station after crossing 20 municipalities in the provinces of Milan, Bergamo and Brescia with 9 viaducts, 7 bridges and 5 tunnels.

The superstructures for the new Treviglio-Brescia railway line were handled (with Salcef) by Generale Costruzioni Ferroviarie, the high speed construction protagonist in Italy.
In overall terms, GCF handled 58.2 kilometres of double line track, comprising 39.6 km full HS/HC, 11.7 km of interconnections and 6.9 km of urban sections.

The entire section has a maximum gradient of 15 ‰ with 52.2 km of embankments, as well as 4.1 km of bridges and viaducts, a tunnel almost 1 km long and 1.1 km in trenches; 8.6 km are equipped with noise barriers. The maximum design speed is 300 km/h.

On Sunday 11 a shiny Frecciarossa 1000 completed the maiden journey in the presence of the Minister for Infrastructures and Transport, Graziano Delrio, top management of the Italian Railways Group and its operating companies, and executives of the construction companies who carried out the work.
“We are proud to have been able to provide our experience and expertise for such a strategic infrastructure for the country as a whole,” said Edoardo Rossi, President of Generale Costruzioni Ferroviarie, “because not only will it shorten times and distances for passenger trains but it will also generate clear benefits for national and international freight transport by improving the connection between the main Italian industrial centres and contributing to the development of the economy.”

Thanks to the activation of high-speed line between Milan and Brescia, travel times between the two cities were cut last Sunday to 36 minutes, while completion of interconnection works will slice off another 6 minutes, for a total savings in time of more than 30%.
Brescia will have a daily high-speed connection with Rome and Naples and, thanks to the best choice in the "Frecciarossa" offering, travel time between Turin and Venice will be quicker by 10 minutes.

By 2017, the high-speed connection between Milan and Venice will move from the design stage into full operation. Three sites in the overall project are scheduled to be opened: the first batch concerns Brescia-Verona, the second batch Verona-Padua, and the third on the first stretch of line Verona-Vicenza Junction.