Rfi, call for tenders for the closure of the Palermo railway ring

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We could call it the last mile. After all, it is somehow even if it is 1.6 kilometers long, of which about 800 meters in a natural gallery. Because it is the last stretch of the Palermo railway ring, in fact the city’s subway. A strategic work for city mobility managed by Rfi (lead company of the Infrastructure Pole of the FS Italiane Group) which has published in the Official Journal of the European Union the call for tenders for the executive design and construction of the works for the second phase the closure of the Palermo ring road, Politeama – Notarbartolo section. The tender has a value of around 93 million euro: RFI’s commercial director Christian Colaneri was appointed as special government commissioner for the work.

The section covered by the contract concerns exclusively the urban fabric of the Sicilian capital and extends for 1.6 kilometres, of which about half in a natural tunnel (Paternostro tunnel, which will be built with mechanized excavation using Tbm); includes the construction of the new “Turrisi Colonna” stop, the upgrading of the future “Politeama” stop (object of the ring closure contract – Phase I, currently nearing completion) and the connection with the Notarbartolo station on the railway link .
The intervention on the infrastructure which, according to a press release, “already offers a single-track metropolitan service in the Sicilian capital between the Notarbartolo station and the Giachery stop, will allow the section to be closed in a loop, increasing capacity and the accessibility of the same and allowing the potential direct connection between the international airport “Falcone e Borsellino” and the port of Palermo». An average daily employment of over 110 people is expected during the construction phase.

«Today the Italian railway network published the tender for the second phase of the works for the closure of the Palermo railway ring – comments the president of the Sicilian Region Renato Schifani -. The work will affect the urban fabric of the city of Palermo with new stops and the connection with the Notarbartolo station on the Passante railway. It will also increase the capacity and accessibility of the section, allowing a direct connection between the Falcone e Borsellino airport and the port of Palermo. An infrastructural development, therefore, oriented towards the sustainable growth of the territory and the communities. Concrete investments that add up, in the month of June alone, to 1.66 billion of works contracted out by RFI in Sicily».