AV/AC Brescia - Verona: finish line in sight

Track works completed, electrification underway for GCF Group companies

The finish line is in sight for the companies of the GCF Group involved in the construction of the Brescia-Verona High-Speed/High-Capacity line and, for over a year, active in railway track works, electrification and the construction of High-Voltage power supply lines. A significant commitment that has, in recent months, involved dozens of high-efficiency vehicles and machines, the handling of an impressive volume of materials, and hundreds of workers engaged in thousands of working hours.

The new route is strategic: an integral part of the Mediterranean TEN-Corridor linking the Iberian Peninsula to the Ukrainian border, it crosses Italy along the east-west axis, connecting Lombardy and Veneto through three Provinces (Brescia, Mantua and Verona) and 11 municipalities. It extends for approximately 48 km (45.4 km of AV/AC line and over 2 km of interconnection), starting from the municipality of Mazzano, largely running alongside existing infrastructure (30 km parallel to the A4 motorway and 8 km aligned with the conventional Milan-Venice railway), up to Verona and the new Verona Merci interconnection.

Track construction

On this demanding section, where embankments, viaducts, tunnels and cuttings have kept the maximum gradient within 12‰, GCF and GEFER S.p.A. completed the railway track works in approximately 12 months. From the two base sites at the Brescia and Verona ends of the line, they handled approximately 300,000 tonnes of ballast (the crushed stone layer used to ensure the stability of the railway structure and water drainage), 158,000 prestressed reinforced concrete sleepers manufactured by Wegh Group, 53 turnouts (railway switches) and as much as 11,500 tonnes of 108 m rails produced in Piombino by JSW Steel: a total of 185,000 metres required for the construction of the two 45 km tracks.

Important, too, was the use of high-efficiency equipment deployed along the line. Starting with the powerful Sorema TR 45 track-laying train, capable of laying up to 450 m of track per hour, alternated in some sections with the well-established “La Meccanica”, the train used on the country’s major lines. Then the Vaiacar SparkRail road-rail welding machine, the three tamping machines Plasser 09-3X Dynamic and Plasser 09/32/4S, and the four ballast profiling machines (2 Matisa R21L and 2 Sorema PS 2015) used for ballast works, as well as six road-rail loaders, 21 flat wagons for rails and sleepers, ballast wagons and, finally, six locomotives (Deutz 216 2000, Krauss Maffei D220, Ipe G 1001) used on site.

Around one hundred GCF and GEFER workers were engaged in track works, with a further one hundred provided by eight subcontractors, for a total of approximately 130,000 hours worked with the highest level of expertise and attention to safety, without any serious accidents.

Twelve months after the start, track works have been completed and, in recent weeks, finishing operations are underway: level adjustments, stabilization and profiling, and rail stress adjustment in preparation for test runs scheduled for early summer.

Electrification and High Voltage

In addition to track construction, companies within the GCF Group are also involved in the installation of technological systems along the Brescia-Verona HS/HC line.
In particular, GCFE - Generale Costruzioni Ferroviarie Elettriche, as a member of the Saturno Consortium, has been engaged since last March in the tensioning activities of the 3 kV DC Overhead Contact Line.
The works, extending over 25 km of double track and including 52 automatic tensioning devices, represent the culminating phase of the Overhead Contact Line construction, which began last year with the installation and equipping of masts and droppers, the tensioning of the messenger wire, and the installation of Omnia-type cantilevers. At the same time, activities are continuing for the commissioning of the 132/3 kV substation in Calcinato, as well as the installation of LFM systems (lighting and power), peripheral remote control systems, and STES systems, i.e. the system for sectioning and safely earthing the overhead contact line.

“The teams - explains the GCFE HS Project Management - consist on average of more than 60 people, including GCFE personnel and subcontractors, among them CRONOS, another Group company, with the deployment of over thirty railway vehicles, including a tensioning train composed of a motor trolley, tensioning wagon, tensioning gantry, and motorized ladders.”

Meanwhile, the construction of the High Voltage (132 kV) Power Supply Lines has already been completed, carried out in collaboration with GCF Power - another company of the Rossfin Group. This includes the Lonato-Calcinato overhead line, with the installation of 27 pylons and the tensioning of a 6.5 km double three-phase conductor system, and the cable line intended to supply the Sona electrical substation, with a total length of 2 km.

Last February, the Mazzano junction was also commissioned, representing the Brescia-side connection point between the Brescia-Verona HS/HC line and the historic Milan-Venice line. GCFE designed, built, and commissioned the overhead contact lines on the HS tracks, on the connections with the conventional line, and the TE cabin equipped with 8 feeders.

In detail, within the framework of the Saturno Consortium, GCFE’s scope of work for the Brescia-Verona HS/HC line includes the design, supply, construction, and commissioning of the 3 kV DC overhead contact line over 25 km of double track; 2 substations (132/3 kV) in Calcinato and Ponte San Marco; 1 TE cabin in Mazzano; 8.8 km of high-voltage double three-phase supply lines; the peripheral remote control system along the entire route; LFM systems in 4 technical buildings and 2 tunnels; and 4 STES systems.

GCF and Gefer: construction of the Brescia-Verona AV track

With the Sorema TR45 construction train in Sommacampagna, near Verona, engaged in the construction of the new Brescia-Verona High-Speed line.

The route in detail

From the starting point in Mazzano, in the province of Brescia, the new railway line diverges from the conventional Milan-Venice railway line with a new junction, running alongside it for about 2 km.
It then continues along a section parallel to the A4 Milan-Venice motorway to the north, near the Chiese viaduct, which crosses the river in the municipality of Calcinato (BS).

The AV/AC railway line then proceeds towards Verona and, after a stretch of embankments, encounters the Lonato tunnel system, which allows it to pass under the A4 motorway and, once out of the tunnel, return to ground level, running south of the motorway.
Continuing on embankments in the areas of Desenzano and Pozzolengo, after crossing the regional border in the municipality of Peschiera del Garda, the AV/AC line meets a system of tunnels and a viaduct crossing the Mincio River and subsequently runs, in the municipality of Castelnuovo del Garda, through sections in artificial tunnel, cuttings and embankments.

After passing under the A4 motorway in the municipality of Sona (VR), the line returns to ground level and runs north of the motorway.
In the final kilometres, the AV/AC route runs in the municipality of Sommacampagna, parallel to the conventional Milan-Venice railway line, until reaching the Verona Ovest junction and connecting to the conventional line.

{ampz:ampzshortcode}