Five months after the housing cabinet approved key parts of the purple and green lines in the Greater Tel Aviv light rail, NTA Metropolitan Mass Transit System Ltd. is publishing today three tenders: a project management tender for each of the two lines and a tender for planning the civil engineering work in the project (Infra 1). Israeli companies are to manage the project with advice from international consultants.
The two lines are scheduled to begin operating in 2024, at an investment of NIS 30 billion. Together with the red line, they will create an initial network that will serve 600,000 passengers daily. Tenders for planning Infra 2 work will also be issued in the coming weeks, including the rail systems and management of the civil engineering work. NTA is trying to meet the Ministry of Transport's order to begin construction of the lines in 2018.
The purple line section approved by the housing cabinet includes 29 stations spread over 18 kilometers. It stretches west from the Savidor railway station in Tel Aviv towards Ben Yehuda Street, southward from there in the direction of Allenby Street, and eastward from there along Hashalom Road to Sheba Medical Center and Bar Ilan University. In the second stage, the purple line will continue east to Yehud, with 44 stations spread over 28 kilometers.
The green line is divided into three sections: southern, central, and northern sections, with a total length of 39 kilometers and 61 stations. The northernmost point of the southern section is a station at the corner of Levinsky Street and Har Zion Boulevard in Tel Aviv. The route continues southward until Sokolov Street in Holon. From there, it splits into two routes: one in the west, which continues south to the Moshe Dayan Interchange in Rishon Lezion, and one in the East, which passes along Jerusalem Boulevard in Holon, crosses Highway 4, and ends on Highway 412 between Ness Ziona and Rishon Lezion.
The central section of the green line is 5.9 kilometers long, 4.25 kilometers of which is underground. The route goes underneath Levinsky Street, and from there to Menachem Begin Boulevard, Carlebach Street, Ibn Gvirol Street, and Shai Agnon Street in the north. Seven stations are planned in the central section, four of which are underground: Levinsky, Carlebach, Dizengoff, and Rabin Square. The northern end of the line, at Hasira Interchange in Herzliya, will include an eastern section going to the Ramat Hayal industrial zone in Tel Aviv.
NTA CEO Yehuda Bar-On has issued instructions for providing explanations about the new lines in the first quarter next year. Information stations will be established and conferences and meetings will be held for giving explanations to residents and business owners. NTA VP Planning Nir Kugel said that issuing the tenders was a "significant milestone" on the way to a "real revolution in public transportation," adding that he regarded addressing the Israeli business sector as important.
Two weeks after the housing cabinet approved progress on the green and purple lines in the Greater Tel Aviv region, French company Systra won the NIS 30 million tender for planning three metro lines in metropolitan Tel Aviv. Planning will be according to the Ministry of Transport proposal for planning lines along three "demand corridors": a line from Kfar Saba and Ra'anana to Rishon Lezion, Lod, and Rehovot via Tel Aviv; an eastern line from Rosh HaAyin via southern Petah Tikva and Ramat Gan to Tel Aviv; and a semicircular line connecting the ends of all the metro lines and the light rail that will make it possible to transfer between them.
Systra's job is to devise the optimal routes for the proposed lines according to demographic, urban, environmental, and social data, and to submit detailed recommendations within 18 months. The work will be carried out by 18 experts from Israel and overseas, who will formulate recommendations on matters such as the integration of tunnels and bridges, the locations of stations, the type of railway carriages, and the projected costs.
Published by Globes [online], Israel Business News - www.globes-online.com - on May 10, 2017
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