The historic Brenner railway that has connected Italy with northern Europe for more than 150 years crosses the Alps at 1,370 metres above sea level and reaches a slope of 26%. The time it takes for trains to travel along it between Fortezza in Italy and Innsbruck in Austria is 80 minutes - far too long a time to justify transporting more cargo on rail instead of road. Even if trucks are held up in traffic along the nearby highway, it is not a convenient alternative.

Once the Brenner Base Tunnel is completed, trains will be able to travel at speeds of up to 200 kilometres per hour with much easier slopes ranging between 4-7%. Travel times will be dramatically reduced to 25 minutes.

Webuild is working on various lots of this project. At 64 kilometres, it will be the longest railway tunnel in the world, facilitating fast and safe sustainable mobility between Munich and Verona along a strategic corridor of the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T).

As one of the most challenging projects in decades, it has called for the use of innovative techniques, such as the freezing of the ground under the Isarco River in order to excavate the tunnels; the excavation of exploratory tunnels; the use of special products to accelerate the mix of water and cement; solutions to protect the surrounding environment from the waste produced at the work sites; and the deployment of 1,300 monitoring stations to ensure the water remains uncontaminated.