• Level crossings eliminated to increase road safety
• The work involves up to 400 people, more than 90% from the local community

Palermo, 14 October 2024 – The installation has been completed of the double track on the 38 kilometres of the Bicocca-Catenanuova Lot 6 of the high-capacity railway line between Palermo and Catania in Sicily, built by Webuild for RFI (FS Group), for which Filippo Palazzo has been appointed Government commissioner. Completion of construction of the lot as a whole has reached more than 86% and work is underway to enable the section to go into service in the spring of 2025.

The work on the new stretch included the elimination of all the level crossings to guarantee alternative road routes that will not interfere with the railway line. The updating of the General Regulatory Plan for the Catania Bicocca, Motta S.A., Sferro and Catenanuova stations has also been completed to permit the insertion of the double track. The construction of the Bicocca-Catenanuova section currently involves up to 400 people, of whom more than 90% live locally, and the participation, since work began, of more than 600 partner companies.

Once completed, the doubling of the railway link between Catania Bicocca and Catenanuova will allow the number of trains in transit to be increased, cutting journey time and encouraging a more sustainable form of mobility than travel by road. 
The Webuild Group is working on eight lots in Sicily: seven railway sections on the Palermo-Catania-Messina line, and one lot on the Ragusana motorway that will connect Ragusa and Catania. These projects are part of the Scandinavian-Mediterranean corridor of the TEN-T network and will provide Sicily with modern transport infrastructures while guaranteeing development and specialised jobs, starting from the construction stage. The eight lots involve an estimated total of 7,000 jobs, with more than 3,000 Webuild employees and subcontractor workers already active at the construction sites, and the participation of around 1,200 companies since work began.

Webuild is a leading player in sustainable mobility on the global stage, where it boasts a track record including more than 14,100 km of railways and metro systems. Besides the operations in Sicily, Webuild is engaged on strategic rail projects such as the Genoa Junction-Terzo Valico dei Giovi, the high-speed Verona-Padua line and the high-speed Naples-Bari line, which are part of the corridors of the Trans-European Transport Network to increase sustainable mobility for goods and passengers in the European Union.