Webuild and its consortium partners picked up the design and construction contract for the project in 2021 but it is only now that the contract has been finalised and signed ensuring construction is ready to kick off.
Work includes 30km of highway and related routes. Section B2 is between Lentate sul Seveso and Cesano Maderno and Section C is between Cesano Maderno and Milan’s A51 eastern beltway. The Pedemontana Lombarda will help improve east-west axis along European TEN-T Corridor 5
The Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) is to create a Europe-wide network of railway lines, roads, inland waterways, maritime shipping routes, ports, airports and railroad terminals. The objective is to remove bottlenecks and technical barriers, as well as to strengthen social, economic and territorial cohesion in the European Union. The backbone of the Core Network is represented by nine Core Network Corridors, of which Corridor 5 is one.
Webuild said that it leads the consortium with a 70% stake, with design and construction company Pizzarotti as partner. Construction of the sections is expected to generate 2,500 jobs directly and indirectly.
Pedemontana Lombarda, also called the Autostrada A36, is a motorway outside the metropolicatan area of Milan. When complete, it will connect the province of Varese with that of Bergamo, as well as the Milan Malpensa Airport with the Orio al Serio International Airport. The section between the link with the A8 at Cassano Magnago and the SP-exSS35 at Lentate sul Seveso was opened during 2015.
The current contract with Webuild for Section B2 and Section C was commissioned by Autostrada Pedemontana Lombarda with Concessioni Autostradali Lombarde as grantor. The project is to be completed for the 2026 Winter Olympic Games to be hosted by Milan and nearby Cortina.
The new sections will deploy smart technology that will help with the maintenance of the infrastructure, among other features. The solutions developed by Webuild will have Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems (C-ITS) that will make the highway ready to receive self-driving vehicles. This will include a diagnostic system to monitor potential weaknesses, weight loads, vibrations and temperatures.
Webuild was created in 2020 from what was the Italian construction company Salini Impregilo, a major infrastructure provider for everything from dams and bridges to roads and hospitals that had been operating for well over 100 years.
Webuild recently constructed the San Giorgio Bridge in Genoa, Italy, in record time after the collapse of the Polcevera viaduct, better known as the Morandi Bridge, in 2018.
Other high-profile projects the company built are the Long Beach International Gateway Bridge in the US state of California and the Al Bayt Stadium in Qatar – one of the venues for the current World Cup football tournament.
