Webuild CEO Pietro Salini: “we are working hard to deliver the rail line to the genovese” 

Genoa to relaunch itself with PNRR, water infrastructure projects.

• Tunnelling for Terzo Valico dei Giovi-Genoa Junction reaches over 80% completion 

• Capital of Liguria region ready for major infrastructure renewal to be implemented also with PNRR funds

• Webuild ready to work with Commissioner on technical, cost solution for Foranea Dam

• “Water for Life” plan to overcome water crisis in Italy

GENOA, Italy, July 6, 2022 – Genoa and Liguria continue to candidate themselves as leaders for implementing infrastructural projects to bring Italy closer to Europe with projects such as the Foranea Dam (Diga Foranea) and the Terzo Valico dei Giovi–Genoa Junction. Tunnelling along the Terzo Valico is more than 80% complete, bringing the project closer to an important milestone of 91 kilometres of tunnels that will eventually allow high-speed trains to travel between Milan and Genoa.

“We are on target with the construction of a complex network of tunnels, such as the one for Terzo Valico,” said Webuild Chief Executive Pietro Salini during a visit to Genoa. “We must not forget that we are excavating under the Alps a rail system that comprises dozens of kilometres of tunnels that constantly lead to unforeseeable events. This is normal for this type of work, and we keep working to give Genoa residents a new rail line with a fast connection to Milan. Three important sections of the Genoa Junction  will be launched and will create stable jobs for the region. We have to proceed rapidly together with Ferrovie dello Stato to complete the job by 2024, eliminating every bureaucratic obstacle, because every day that we lose to bureaucracy is a day late in delivering to residents a train and a more functional transport system.”

Salini added: “The role of the sea and water in the infrastructure development plans financed by the PNRR (National Plan for Recovery and Resilience) must be at the heart of the today’s political agenda. This is a special city which could be an important start to a project that can solve the water crisis in Italy. We are surrounded by sea, we have the resources under the PNRR, and we have the technology that we have used with Fisia in countries and cities with the greatest water scarcity in the world, such as Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi and Dubai. Why can’t we also do desalination plants in Italy? Today global warming means less rain and water over the long term. It is a problem that cannot be managed by traditional ways. In Italy, less than 4% of the water used comes from desalination plants. In countries similar to our own like Spain, this percentage raises to 56%. Genoa is the city where we can start. Here we have shown that public works can be done quickly and transparently, such as the Genoa Bridge. Here is where we should start a water project with Fisia, a project that at the national level brings water to cities and residents thanks to a definitive solution and not just a temporary one that we are used to doing, wasting resources without facing up to the problem as we should do. So we are ready, and the same applies to the city’s other big project: the Foranea dam The Webuild team is ready to support the Commissioner in defining in a proper way the cost and technical problems that it poses in order to give the city a new port as quickly as possible.”



Webuild has overseen the construction of some of the largest water treatment and desalination plants in the world. These projects produce a combined 6 million cubic metres a day, meeting the needs of 20 million people throughout the world.