How 4 key infrastructure projects centered in Italy will reshape the European transit map

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MILAN (AP) — A hydraulic rock drill broke open a tunnel connecting Austria to Italy 1,400 meters (nearly 4,600 feet) beneath the Alps on Thursday, marking a major milestone in a series of ambitious European Union projects that will accelerate passenger train travel between metropolitan centers and shift freight off the roads and onto rails.

Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni and Austrian Chancellor Christian Stocker were on hand for the ceremonial breakthrough of the final meter of rock opening the first tunnel beneath the Brenner Pass, a key junction in an EU rail project that will one day run from Helsinki to Palermo. Trains are to begin running in 2032.

"In the end, there is no project that is too big to be tackled, there is no project too big for us to bet on,'' Meloni said at the ceremony.

The Brenner Base Tunnel, which will be the longest underground rail tunnel in the world when completed, is among four key infrastructure projects that promise to reshape how Italians travel and ship goods by the early 2030s, while bringing Europe closer together.

Tunnels will cut travel times between Verona and Munich by more than half to 2½ hours, between Milan and Paris by at least 30% to 4½ hours and put the Ligurian port city of Genoa within commuting distance of Italy’s finance and fashion capital — significantly redrawing the Europe transit map.

The boldest and most contested projects of them all, the recently approved Straits of Messina Bridge, will finally connect the Italian mainland with Sicily, a link first envisioned by the ancient Romans and long delayed by modern Italians.

“The challenge of construction gives extraordinary satisfaction for what we can achieve. It changes the lives of people,″ said Pietro Salini, the CEO of the Italian construction giant Webuild that has a lead role in all four projects.

The tunnels and bridge projects mark the first significant upgrade to the Italian rail system since the Rome-Milan high-speed rail line was launched in 2008. It drastically reduced travel time between Italy’s political and financial centers, effectively killing the once-lucrative Rome-Milan airline route. The rail line can now be traveled in as little as three hours.

The current projects also aim to reduce truck traffic on highways — with the biggest impact expected on the Brenner Pass, which is traversed by more than 2.5 million trucks annually, making it one of Europe’s busiest Alpine routes and a crucial north-south link. More than 700 billion euros ($824 billion) in goods cross it each year, according to the Brenner Highway CEO Diego Catoni, as a primary Italian export route bringing automotive components and small machinery northward.

Officials also touted the environmental benefits at Thursday's ceremony.

By reducing road congestion, "air quality will improve, noise will diminish and C02 emission will fall," said Apostolos Tzitzikostas, the European Commissioner for sustainable transport and tourism.

These are among more than 40 strategic projects overseen by Italy's rail network, many funded with 25 billion euros (nearly $30 billion) in European Union pandemic recovery funds. They include a high-speed line between Naples and Bari on the heel of the Italian boot.

Here are four major infrastructure projects that will bring Italian and European centers closer together:

The Brenner Base tunnel, which will be the longest underground rail tunnel in the world, will run for 55 kilometers (34 miles) between Tulfes, Austria, and Fortezza, Italy, extending to 64 kilometers (nearly 40 miles) with existing tunnels from Tulfes to Innsbruck.

The project, which is estimated to cost about 8.8 billion euros (nearly $10.5 billion), is expected to be completed by 2031 with the first train traversing it in 2032. The project, launched in 2007, is being co-funded by Italy, Austria and the EU.

A 53-kilometer (33-mile) high-speed rail line connecting the port city of Genoa with Tortona in Piedmont, with links to Milan, includes 37 kilometers (23 kilometers) of tunnels.

One of them is 27 kilometers (more than 16½ miles) long. It aims to shift the transport of goods from the Ligurian port cities of Genoa, La Spezia and Savona to northern Europe from road to rail beginning next year, increasing to 50% by 2050.

Passenger train travel time between Milan and Genoa will be cut to about an hour from more than 1½ hours. The cost is 8.5 billion euros ($10 billion) and the tunnels are 90% complete. Started in 2012, the project was slowed by the difficult geology of the Apennine range, including the discovery of natural asbestos.

The 11-billion-euro ($13 billion) Lyon-Turin High-Speed Rail Tunnel extends more than 65 kilometers (40 miles) with 57½ kilometers (nearly 36 miles) of the Mont Cenis base tunnel running underground from Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne, France and Susa, Italy.

The project aims to remove more than 1 million heavy goods vehicles from roads in the western Alps between France and Italy. Passenger travel time between Paris, Europe’s second-largest metropolitan area, and Milan, Europe’s third-largest metropolitan area, will be reduced to 4½ hours from 6½-7½ hours.

The project, launched in 2007, was slowed significantly by environmental protests on the Italian side, and is now expected to be completed between 2032-2033. It's being co-funded by France, Italy and the EU.

The 13.5 billion-euro ($16 billion) Strait of Messina Bridge project will speed travel between the Italian mainland and Sicily and incorporate rail connections to Palermo and Catania, which are being upgraded.

The single-span bridge itself will span from Messina, Sicily, to Villa San Giovanni, Calabria, with six car lanes and two rail lines. The government is awaiting final approval by the court of audits to launch preliminary work. It's expected to be completed by 2032.