TELT Lot 1 - Co3 and C04 – Chiomonte

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. 

The contract covers the construction of the Lyon-Turin tunnel in the Susa Valley (Piedmont, Italy), starting from the newly operational construction site in the Maddalena di Chiomonte area and extending to the Susa entrance, with a total excavation length of 28.5 km. In addition to the two base tunnel tubes, further excavations are planned: the Maddalena 2 tunnel, from where the tunnel boring machines will start, the bypasses between the two tubes, the Clarea safety site and the artificial tunnel at the east entrance to Susa. On December 18th 2023, the official start date of the Chiomonte construction site, Ghella, together with other partners, signed the “Integrity and Sustainability Pact” of the LyonLyon companies and the “Mission-S Charter”, the safety programme for the worksite. These two contractual documents commit Tunnel Euralpin Lyon Turin ‘s (TELT) entire supply chain to adhere to the fundamental principles of sustainable development outlined by the UN Global Compact. Specifically, TELT is committed to making Chiomonte a “zeroemission” construction site. To achieve this, on the one hand, it is implementing a strategy that includes minimising emissions using energy from renewable sources, low energy consumption technological systems, and the employment of low-emission vehicles, including electric ones.

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