Lyon Turin High speed railway – Base Tunnel Lot 1 (SITE 5)

The Lyon - Turin link consists of a new freight and passenger railway line spanning 270 km, with 70% in France and 30% in Italy. It will form the central link of the Mediterranean Corridor, one of the 9 axes of the TransEuropean transport network (TEN-T). The cross-border section, built by the bi-national promoter TELT, is the central part of the project, connecting 65 km between the two international stations to be built in Saint-Jeande-Maurienne (France) and Susa/Bussoleno (Italy), where the tracks will then connect to the existing lines. The main work of the cross-border section is the Mont Cenis base tunnel: two single-track tubes 57.5 km long, with 45 km in France and 12.5 km in Italy. When completed, the tunnel will contend the title of longest in the world alongside the Brenner Base Tunnel, also built by us. The tunnel will transform the current mountain railway, which passes through the historic Fréjus railway tunnel at 1,300m above sea level, into a flat railway route, improving the competitiveness and safety standards of rail transport and reducing its energy consumption. 

We are currently involved in the work on “Section 1” of the project: starting from Villarodin-Bourget Modane and excavating for about 3.7 km, using conventional tunnelling, in the direction of Lyon and for about 18 km, using TBM, towards Turin. The segment in the direction of Turin has the highest rock overburdens, with depths exceeding two thousand metres.
 

Benefits

1. Improved safety standards, cuts energy consumption and travel time compared to the existing railway link
2. Removal of roughly 1 million heavy road vehicles annually from the road  
3. Cuts greenhouse gases in an amount of approximately 1 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent once it is in operation