Denmark: a new metro line inaugurated in Copenhagen
The Copenhagen ‘M3 Cityringen line’, the city’s third metro line almost entirely constructed by Italian companies, was inaugurated at the presence of Queen Margrethe II. Italian firms were engaged both for the infrastructural component (with Salini-Impregilo as project leader), for the railway, rolling stock and signalling component (Hitachi-Ansaldo and GCF), and also for the service management aspect (ATM and Hitachi-Ansaldo). The project comprehensively amounted to more than 3 billion euros, spread over the 8 years that the works lasted.
In their official speeches, the Prime Minister, the Minister of Transport and the Mayor of Copenhagen, made frequent references to the excellent contribution of the Italian companies involved in implementing the project, which kept up with a very ambitious schedule in the implementation of a particularly innovative and technically complex project.
The M3 Cityringen is one of Europe’s latest major infrastructure projects. It envisages a 15.2 km-long city loop with two parallel tunnels at a depth of 30-40 metres. It serves 17 stations that in several points cross with the two pre-existing metro lines. The completely automated system was designed to transport 350,000 people a day, for a total of 130 million people a year.
The driverless trains used by the M3 are entirely produced in Italy, in the Regions of Campania, Basilicata and Calabria (like the trains used by the other two metro lines) and run frequently at rush hour. Salini-Impregilo used between 4,000 and 5,000 workers in this project, with 350 subcontractors, prevalently Italian.
The management of the Copenhagen metro network was also assigned to Italian firms through the Metro Service A/S, owned by ATM (Azienda Trasporti Milanesi, with a 51% share) and Hitachi STS (49%). The M3 management and maintenance contract has a duration of 15 years and is worth 240 million euros.
For Denmark the project represents a key component of the plan to reduce fossil fuel emissions by 70% launched by the Frederiksen-led Government.
Brazil: Ecorodovias wins a 1 billion euro highway concession contract
Following the auction held at the Sao Paulo Stock Exchange, the Ecorodovias Group, controlled by the Italian Gavio, was adjudicated the 30-year concession of the 364/365 highway, which extends over 437 km between the cities of Jataì (Goias State) and Uberlandia (State of Minas Gerais), a very important area for the transport of a large number of agricultural products.
Investments are estimated to amount to 4.57 billion reals (roughly 1 billion euros). Of these, 2.06 billion reals (400 million euros) will be allocated to double the number of lanes and to improve the infrastructure, while 2.51 billion reals (600 million euros) will go to cover management costs.
According to the local press, Ecorodovias CFO Marcelo Guidotti affirmed that the concession is part of the Group’s strategy to increase its capillary presence throughout the territory of Brazil.
The Ecorodovias Group has been operating in the Brazilian market since 1997 and was taken over by the Gavio Group in 2016. Through 10 concessionaires, Ecorodovias manages important highway sections in Brazil, for a total extension that, thanks to the addition of the 437 km of the new Jatai-Uberlandia concession, will exceed 3,000 km.
