Cosenza-Paola/S. Lucido (Santomarco Tunnel) Section, Salerno-Reggio Calabria HS Railway Line

Main data:

• Length of section: 22.2 km of which 17 km underground
• No. 1 Railway Tunnel: 15.4 km (new Santomarco Tunnel) double barrel single track

The project for doubling the Cosenza-Paola/S. Lucido (Santomarco Tunnel) Section of the Salerno-Reggio Calabria HS Railway Line foresees a new double track high-speed connection between Paola/S. Lucido and Cosenza, which develops over approximately 22.2 km, of which 17 km underground. 

The new Santomarco Tunnel, one of the line's strategic works, and the main part of the project, was commissioned by RFI (FS Italiane Group). It measures approximately 15.4 km in length (of which 15.1 km of natural tunnel and the remaining part made from entrance artificial tunnels) and will be a double barrel single track tunnel with the presence every 500 metres of transversal connection bypasses between the barrels. 4 TBMs will be used to excavate the tunnel.

The new Santomarco Tunnel will develop approximately 100 metres from the already existing one (single track), which will be dismissed once works are finished.

The project also includes building 9 bridges and 2 viaducts: a 350-metre-long viaduct will cross the A2 motorway and a second one, which will measure 205 metres, will cross over the Settimo River. The new Montalto Uffugo station will also be built to serve the Università della Calabria (UniCal), headquartered in Rende.

This work is a key step in completing the new high-speed/high-capacity Salerno-Reggio Calabria line. It will contribute to improve the economic and social development of Southern Italy as part of the Scandinavian-Mediterranean corridor in the TEN-T Network, a strategic axis connecting the southern part of the peninsula with Northern Italy and Europe.The project will contribute to connecting Cosenza to the high-speed railway that is being built between Salerno and Reggio Calabria, contributing to significantly improving the capacity and efficiency of the railway connection between the Tyrrhenian coast and inland Calabria, ensuring better accessibility to Cosenza and strengthening the Bari-Taranto-Gioa Tauro trade route.

The section will cross the province of Cosenza, in Calabria, passing through the municipalities of Paola, San Lucido, Rende, Montalto Uffugo, San Vincenzo la Costa and San Fili. A new station at Montalto Uffugo will also be built, serving the territory and the Rende University Hub. 

Technical complexities and innovation

From a geo-technical point of view, the work area where the Cosenza-Paola/S. Lucido (Santomarco Tunnel) Section will be built is strongly influenced by numerous direct kinematic faults that create low quality issues related to the rock. The railway section in the two open-air sections, before and after the tunnel, has many interferences with the hydrographic network. In particular, on the Cosenza side, the work interferes with the Settimo river and with some of the ditches near the Crati river. Near the Tyrrhenian coast (Paola-San Lucido side), from north to south, the line interferes with rivers and ditches (the Zio Petruzzo River, the Licciardo River, the Scorza Ditch, the Siviglia Ditch and Varco Le Chianche River).

To excavate the tunnel, 4 TBMs of the EPB type are foreseen to be used, which will advance in parallel: two from the Cosenza side and two from the Paola/San Lucido side. The traditional excavation technique will only be used in the central section of the Santomarco Tunnel, due to the complex geo-technical scenario that was mentioned above. The interconnection large chambers and the other auxiliary works will also be built with the traditional excavation method.