• Webuild and consortium partners to develop 27-km section between Caltanissetta Xirbi and Nuova Enna, part of TEN-T corridor
• Contract brings Webuild to building five sections of Palermo-Catania-Messina line, creating up to 4,300 jobs and chain of 580 suppliers as of today
• Webuild’s commitment to Southern Italy is strategic for sustainable mobility, in line with energy transition

MILAN, April 27, 2023 – Webuild and its consortium partners have been awarded a contract worth a combined total of €1.2 billion to develop Lot 4A between the stations of Caltanissetta Xirbi and Nuova Enna as part of the development of a high-capacity railway along the Palermo-Catania axis in Sicily, Italy. Commissioned by Rete Ferroviaria Italiana (RFI) of Gruppo FS Italiane and financed by the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR in Italian), the contract involves the executive design and construction of 27 kilometres of the railway. The Group will lead the consortium with a 75% stake, with partner Ghella at 25%.

The contract brings to five the number of lots, or sections, to be developed by Webuild on the Palermo-Catania-Messina rail axis, for a combined value of approximately €3.6 billion. The others are the Bicocca-Catenanuova and Nuova Enna-Dittaino lots between Palermo and Catania, and the Taormina-Giampilieri and Fiumefreddo-Taormina/Letojanni lots between Catania and Messina. Work on these five lots is estimated to create up to 4,300 direct and indirect jobs, with the direct involvement of more than 580 direct suppliers, half of which from southern Italy and the islands.

The new Palermo-Catania-Messina axis is a strategic project for Sicily and Italy, and it will be part of the Scandinavian-Mediterranean Corridor of the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T). It will reduce travel times between Palermo and Catania by 60 minutes to two hours.

Lot 4A, which will have a new rail line built next to the existing one, will include 20 kilometres of tunnels, of which 90% excavated by tunnel-boring machines. Three kilometres of the line will be across viaducts. The work will be done by Webuild (leader), with SELI Overseas (Webuild Group), Ghella and TunnelPro (Ghella Group).

With the new contract, Webuild has 17 projects under construction in southern Italy and the islands, with a supply chain of more than 3,800 businesses since the start of works. The projects, including four sections of the high-speed/high-capacity railway between Naples and Bari, make Webuild’s commitment to southern Italy even more strategic for the development of sustainable mobility, in line with the country’s broader energy transition efforts.