Webuild awarded €803 million contract for Genoa Undersea Road Tunnel

Webuild to deliver project’s central section, the most technically complex stretch beneath port and city

Tunnel will separate urban and port traffic, reducing congestion and emissions

Two parallel tunnels planned, each 3.4 km long, excavated using a TBM with a diametre of nearly 16 metres 

Project also includes urban regeneration works, with new green spaces

MILAN, July 30, 2026 – The Webuild Group strengthens its presence in Liguria with an €803 million contract awarded by Autostrade per l’Italia for the construction of the central section of the Genoa Undersea Road Tunnel. The project will be executed by Webuild (90 percent) and its subsidiary SELI Overseas (10 percent). It involves the most complex stretch of the work, Lot B, which runs underground beneath the port basin and the part of the city. The project is a key component in improving urban mobility and enhancing connections between the city and the port, one of the Mediterranean’s main logistics hubs. 

The overall route will extend approximately 4.2 kilometres, including 3.4 kilometres in tunnels, with two separate parallel tubes, one for each direction of travel. The tunnel will connect San Benigno, to the west, with Viale Brigate Partigiane in the Foce district, passing beneath the port basin, where it will reach a minimum depth of more than 40 metres, before rising again beneath the hill of the Carignano district. Excavation will be carried out using a tunnel-boring machine (TBM) with a diametre of nearly 16 metres, one of the largest to be used in Italy, excavating a total of approximately 7 kilometres. 

Webuild already has one of the largest TBM fleets in the world, with around 65 such machines globally, including those in operation, under assembly, and on order. Of that total, 40 are for projects in Italy, further evidence of the Group’s established leadership in underground works.

The new tunnel will separate urban traffic from port and logistics flows, which currently overlap, improving traffic and reducing congestion, emissions and noise pollution. The most visible benefits will be at surface level: diverting a significant share of traffic underground will free up urban spaces, improve connections between neighbourhoods and enhance the liveability of some of the city’s most congested areas. The project is expected to create up to more than 700 jobs, directly and indirectly.

The project also integrates urban regeneration initiatives, including landscape improvements at both mouths of the tunnel and the development of the Lanterna Park, which will be partially built using excavated material, in line with circular economy principles and to reduce construction-related transport.

From a technical standpoint, the project presents major challenges: construction below the seabed, tunnelling through complex geological conditions, and operating inside a busy urban and port environment.

With this project, Webuild consolidates a strategic industrial presence in Genoa. In recent years, the Group has been involved in the construction of the New Breakwater, designed to enhance the port’s capacity and safety, and the Terzo Valico dei Giovi–Genoa Junction, the high-capacity, high-speed rail link that will connect the city with Milan. Together, these three infrastructures will help reshape Genoa’s role by integrating port, rail and urban road systems into a more efficient and connected network, also within the Rhine-Alpine Corridor, one of the axes of the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) connecting Europe’s most densely populated and industrialised regions.