$700 million from the Turin-Lyon Connecting Europe Fund

Listen to the audio version of the article

The EU has allocated 700 million euros for the Turin-Lyon high-speed rail project, making the cross-border project the first in Italy and the third in Europe to be financed by the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF), a European fund that supports transport infrastructure on the continent. A total of 134 projects have been selected on the list to receive 7 billion euros in financing between now and 2027. As the European Commission emphasizes in a report, this is a “record” figure for sustainable transport infrastructure.

The Ministry of Transport said that “16 of the 37 proposals presented by Italy were positively evaluated, with a total allocation of 545.7 million euros, or 15.3% of the total allocation. Italy is therefore the second largest recipient after France.” In addition to TAV, projects that received funding include the Channel Bridge, costing about 25 million euros, and the Brenner Pass (Fortezza-Gardina Bridge) access road section, costing about 69 million euros.

equipment

The total budget for the Turin-Lyon route amounts to 765 million euros, of which 405 million euros are allocated to Italy. 700 million euros have been allocated to build a tunnel under the Mont Cenis, close to the Alps, which will connect the stations of Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne (France) and Susa (Italy). Instead, 64.569 million dollars have been allocated to co-finance studies, not yet launched in France, to determine the route of a national route between Lyon and the exit of the tunnel in French territory.

164 km of tunnels

Work is underway on the construction of the base tunnels between Italy and France. Together with two main communication routes (one in each direction) and the safety infrastructure connected to the main excavation, 164 km of tunnels will be excavated. To date, the Franco-Italian listed company Telt, which is managing the works, reports that 37 km have been excavated, of which 13.5 km are for the base tunnels.

Strait Bridge

Also on the list of EU-funded projects is the Strait Bridge, which will receive €24.7 million to complete the technical design of a rail-road bridge over the Strait of Messina connecting Alabria and Sicily. “The main benefit of this project is to prepare for future bridge construction,” the commission wrote.