Following TELT’s Board of Directors meeting today remotely between Rome and Paris, a live streaming press conference was held announcing the signing of contracts for the construction of the base tunnel in France. The construction sites that, at the peak of the work will employ five tunnel boring machines, represent an investment of more than €3 billion, co-financed by Europe, Italy and France for the excavation of 80% of the Lyon-Turin base tunnel.
In the coming months, the Italian lot, worth approximately €1 billion, will see the excavation of the tunnel that will emerge at Susa (Turin).

The railway tunnel under the Alps between France and Italy will be one of the longest in the world: 57.5 km in two separate tubes, to keep separate the flow of trains in both directions and ensure complete safety, for a total of 115 km of tunnels.
The Lyon-Turin railway line represents the primary section of the Mediterranean Corridor and will make it possible to cross the Alps at a plain speed (220 km/h for passengers and 120 km/h for freight). Thanks to this railway line, over 1 million lorries will no longer be present on Alpine roads, with significant  environmental and economic benefits.

To date, a total of 30 km of tunnels have been excavated.  This represents more than 18% of the total 162 km planned for the project. This complex machine comprises two parallel tunnels, four access adits and 204 safety bypasses. 113 km of exploratory surveys and core drilling in Italy and France have also been carried out.

European Commissioner for Transport, Adina Vălean:
“Today’s decision to award three contracts worth €3 billion is a significant step towards completing the Lyon-Turin rail connection. It will bridge a key missing link between France and Italy and help shift large volumes of cross-border traffic from road to rail. But it is more than a bi-national project, as it will become the nexus connecting the Iberian Peninsula to the Eastern part of the European Union. The Lyon-Turin rail connection is a long-awaited, well-thought-out, and highly emblematic European project, contributing to the objectives of the European Green Deal.”

The tender process and awards criteria

The tender process has taken place in the context of the pandemic, which has imposed restrictions on travel, face-to-face meetings and on accessibility to the construction sites. However, the IT equipment available ensured the efficiency and confidentiality required to deal with the complexity of the bids analysed (almost 30,000 documents were received), which between June 2020 and May 2021 were evaluated by a team of 70 people, including the work management and TELT executives in 138 meetings of negotiations with the candidate companies.

In the evaluations, the economic criterion was flanked by a technical criterion that first of all assessed the quality of the proposed solutions: the enterprise consortia presented efficient programmes from the point of view of implementation time, environmental protection and employment inclusion. In particular, the companies made an important effort with regard to the inclusion of people with work difficulties, proposing more than double the number of hours of the basic requirement for this quota of employees.

On the environmental front, ad hoc solutions and measures have been proposed to ensure the environmental sustainability of construction sites, with dedicated teams and precise monitoring of environmental and social indicators. The companies, all of which are certified from an energy and environmental point of view, have made a special commitment to environmental protection during the works and to the use of clean energy and biofuels, with nearly 100% green energy construction sites.

The lots and winning enterprise consortia

Lot 1 – EIFFAGE Génie Civil (group head) / SPIE BATIGNOLLES / GHELLA / COGEIS consortium

The companies will build the 22 km stretch of tunnel between the existing Villarodin-Bourget/Modane tunnel and Italy. The tunnels will be excavated in approximately 72 months: towards Turin with the use of two tunnel boring machines and towards Lyon with the traditional method (hydraulic breaker and/or explosive). The value of this lot is €1.47 billion.

The Modane safety site, the communication branches located every 333 metres between the two tunnels, necessary for maintenance and safety, and all the niches and transverse tunnels for operation and safety, will also be realised in this phase. The territories of the municipalities of Villarodin-Bourget, Modane, Avrieux and Aussois will be those involved.

Lot 2 – VINCI Construction Grands Projets (group head) / DODIN CAMPENON BERNARD / VINCI Construction France TP Lyon / WeBuild consortium

Excavation continues along the 10-km-long section, already completed at Saint-Martin-la-Porte, towards Italy. All 23 km of the twin-tube between Saint-Martin-la-Porte, La Praz and Modane will be excavated. The work will be carried out using three tunnel boring machines, while the more geologically complex sections will be excavated using traditional methods (hydraulic breaker and/or explosives). Approximately 65 months of work are planned for a total spend of €1.43 billion.

The territories of the municipalities of Saint-Martin-la-Porte, Saint-Michel-de-Maurienne, Orelle, Saint André, Villargondran and Saint-Julien-Mont-Denis will be involved. The La Praz safety site, communication branches every 333 metres between tunnels, technical rooms, niches and tunnels for operation and safety will also to be built in this lot.

Lot 3 – IMPLENIA Suisse (group head) / IMPLENIA France / NGE / ITINERA / RIZZANI de ECCHER consortium

This is the section of tunnel between the French entrance portal at Saint-Julien-Montdenis and Saint-Martin-la-Porte. Excavation in this section will be carried out using the traditional method, that is, with a hydraulic breaker and/or explosives.

There are also works planned on the Villard-Clément platform between the artificial tunnel to the west (the cut and cover tunnel, already built) and the natural entrance of the tunnel into the mountain to the east. In addition, there will be communication branches every 333 metres between the two tunnels, technical rooms and niches for operation and safety. This lot is worth €228 million and will take approximately 70 months to complete.