The Calatrava bridge will not be transferred to the franchisee on time.
Another central part of the Jerusalem Light Railway Project is now behind schedule. Sources inform ''Globes'' that under the amended agreement between Jerusalem Light Rail franchisee City Pass and the government, completion of the Calatrava Bridge (Bridge of Strings) is to be put back to September 2008.
This is a further delay in the completion of the bridge, in which a whopping NIS 250 million has been invested so far. Under the original agreement between the parties, the government was supposed to have handed over the bridge to City Pass, once it had been completed and had met all the relevant standards. The original date for the completion of the project was August 2007, and it has already been postponed once to the beginning of May. The franchisee will now have to wait a further four months.
The Calatrava Bridge, which was designed by the Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava, is a suspension bridge built at the entrance to Jerusalem as part of the Light Railway Project, which is supposed be operational by the end of 2010.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on March 12, 2008
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2008