Simultaneously, the new overpass on Provincial Road 106 in the municipality of Ponte, within the same lot, has been delivered and opened to traffic. The Ponte tunnel, approximately 330 meters long, was excavated using traditional methods and represents one of the most significant milestones of the Telese-Vitulano lot. «With the breaking of the last diaphragm of the Ponte tunnel, following the drilling of the Reventa and Limata tunnels, about 80% of the natural tunnel excavation activities planned in the project have been completed,» reads the official note released by the Fs Italiane group. This is one of the most complex sections from a geotechnical and engineering point of view, and the completion of the excavation testifies to the regularity with which the work is progressing in a project destined to radically change mobility between Campania, Puglia, and more generally, between the Tyrrhenian and Adriatic sides of the Peninsula.

No less significant is the delivery of the new overpass on SP106: the infrastructure, 170 meters long and consisting of 6 spans of about 13 meters each, was built to eliminate a level crossing on the historic Caserta-Foggia line, improving safety and fluidity of local traffic. «The work is preparatory to the completion of the new site of the railway doubling, in correspondence with the interference with the provincial road network,» explain Fs. The works in the Telese-Vitulano lot are managed by Rete Ferroviaria Italiana (Rfi) with technical direction entrusted to Italferr, both companies of the Fs group.

The execution is handled by the Telese Scarl consortium, which brings together the companies Ghella, Itinera, Salcef, and Coget Impianti, for an investment of about 506 million euros. If the adjacent Frasso Telesino-Telese Terme lot is also considered, the total amount for these two sections rises to 745 million euros. In recent months, the last diaphragms of two other tunnels had already been broken: the «Telese,» about 3 kilometers long, and the «Reventa,» in the territory of Ponte, about 150 meters long. The intervention is part of a larger project: the new High-Speed/Capacity Naples-Bari line, a massive work of over 6.3 billion euros (partly financed with Pnrr funds), which includes 145 kilometers of new railway, with 15 tunnels, 25 viaducts, and 20 stations and stops.

The infrastructure aims to significantly reduce travel times and efficiently connect the two coasts of the peninsula: the Tyrrhenian and the Adriatic. The completion of the line will be progressive: the Cancello-Frasso lot will be completed by 2025, while the Frasso-Telese lot will be completed by 2026. Once operational, the line will allow travel from Bari to Naples in 2 hours and 40 minutes and from Bari to Rome in about three hours: a revolution in travel times and quality. «The new Naples-Bari high-speed line represents a priority infrastructure for Southern Italy and the entire country, on which my personal commitment and that of the Government is maximum to accelerate interventions in compliance with the timetable.

The Naples-Bari high-speed line is confirmed as central in the framework of the country’s infrastructural modernization interventions and will soon mark a new chapter for the growth of the South,» said Undersecretary to the Ministry of Transport Tullio Ferrante (Fi).