Positive
Project advancing - milestone achieved
Medium Impact
Significant progress or notable issue
On 10 April 2026, Terna awarded the preliminary marine survey and environmental characterisation contract for the Milano–Montalto HVDC submarine cable to a Temporary Consortium (RTC) led by Next Geosolutions (NextGeo, ~84% stake), with partners CoNISMa (Consorzio Nazionale Interuniversitario per le Scienze del Mare), Poliservizi Srl and CIBM (Consorzio per il Centro Interuniversitario di Biologia Marina ed Ecologia Applicata "G. Bacci"). The award has a maximum value exceeding €28 million and follows the open European procurement procedure launched by Terna on 28 May 2025 with publication of the tender notice on the GUCE (S 102/2025 – 345476). The NextGeo-led RTC ranked first in the combined technical-economic evaluation and subsequent negotiated phase. The scope covers high-precision corridor surveys for each cable along the approximately 280 km submarine route between Montalto di Castro (Viterbo, Lazio) and Avenza (Massa-Carrara, Tuscany), gathering detailed information on seabed morphology, shallow stratigraphy, sediment characteristics and the distribution and status of phyto- and zoobenthic communities in both nearshore and offshore areas. The award marks the formal start of pre-installation site investigation activity for the Hypergrid backbone, with field operations planned to start in the second half of 2026 using a fleet of different survey vessels.