NTA Metropolitan Mass Transit System Ltd. today issued the tunneling tender for the Tel Aviv light rail Green Line section between Levinsky Street in the south of the city and Nordau Street in the old north.
The Green Line will have southern branches beginning in Rishon Lezion and Holon and run via central Tel Aviv and two northern branches to Tel Aviv University and Kiryat Atidim and to Herzliya. There will be a 4 kilometer tunnel in Tel Aviv with stations at Carlebach Street, Kaplan Street, Rabin Square and Arlozorov West. Tunneling work is scheduled to begin in 2020.
The tender includes planning and implementation of the tunnels and underground stations including the required traffic arrangements. As part of the threshold requirements for the tender, companies must demonstrate experience in tunneling and construction of underground buildings in soft ground and groundwater in an urban environment and within close proximity to residential buildings.
As Israeli companies do not have such experience of tunneling in complicated conditions, the tender is only open to foreign companies although Israeli companies can join them as subcontractors for building the stations.
NTA CEO Yehuda Bar-On said, "This important tender takes us one more step towards a network of lines that the residents of Gush Dan (Greater Tel Aviv) are expecting. Building of the Red Line continues to progress on schedule towards its operation in less than three years. At the same time we are moving ahead with the Green Line and the Purple Line, which in a number of years will serve over 500,000 residents of the Tel Aviv metropolitan area."
At the end of the month, infrastructure work will begin on the Purple Line in Tel Aviv's Arlozorov Street.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on December 10, 2018
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