ITALY: Celebrations were held in the Brenner Base Tunnel on November 24 to mark tunnel boring machine ‘Serena’ reaching the Austrian border, after completing the 14·1 km exploratory drive on the Italian side of the project over the past 3½ years.
Operated by Italian construction contractor Webuild, ‘Serena’ is a 6·85 m diameter Herrenknecht double shielded tunnel boring machine which is 300 m long and weighs more than 1 200 tonnes. Having completed its work, it will now be dismantled.
Two other TBMs are boring the main tunnel tubes above the exploratory tunnel.
