Carmel Tunnels edit
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Carmel Tunnels edit
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This article or section contains information about a planned or expected future tunnel. It may contain information of a speculative nature and the content may change as the construction or completion of the tunnel approaches, and more information becomes available. |
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The Carmel Tunnels are a set of road tunnels currently under construction in and around Haifa, Israel. The tunnels' purpose is to reduce road congestion in the Haifa area and to provide an alternate route of reaching the eastern and central parts of the city, Haifa Bay and the Kerayot area to and from Israel's central coastal plain without having to travel through traffic-congested downtown Haifa, having to drive up and across the Carmel Mountain or bypassing Haifa from the east, along the edge of the Jezreel Valley (via Highway 70 for example).
The tunnels are built as a BOT project, and when completed, driving in the tunnels will require paying a toll.
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The entire project is 6.5 km long. There will be four tunnels (two sets of twin tunnels), the 3 km long western set and the 1.6 km long eastern set, containing two lanes of traffic in each tunnel. The tunnels are being bored in the Carmel Mountains, essentially under the city of Haifa and will have three portals: one from the west, near the MATAM business park (with a connection to the Coastal Highway and the Old Haifa–Tel Aviv Highway), one in the center off Rupin Road (next to the Grand Canyon Shopping Mall) and from the east leading to the Kerayot interchange.
The project is built by Carmelton, a subsidiary of Ashtrom and Shikun & Binuy, two of the largest infrastructure companies in Israel, and the tunnels are bored by CCECC, a Chinese company specializing in tunnel boring.
The expected completion date is December 2010, with part of the project being opened as early as April 2010.1 The total cost of the project will be approximately 1.2 billion NIS (300 million US Dollars in December 2008 prices).
Plans for the tunnels were first proposed as early as 1992, and the winning tender for the construction of the tunnels was awarded to Carmelton in 1997. In 1999 Carmelton obtained financing for the project, however construction was delayed until 2002 due to objections and other legal matters, at which point Israel Discount Bank backed out of its obligation to provide credit for the project. A lengthy legal suit followed, which eventually forced the bank to carry out its financial obligations.
Six hundred Chinese workers have been brought in for the project by CCECC. The project was first delayed just one week after the cornerstone was laid in April 2007, following concerns over electromagentic radiation standards.2 Work finally resumed on June 19, 2007.
The project was once again delayed in September 2008, when CCECC demanded that the contract with Carmelton be re-negotiated due to the increase in costs which CCECC had to deal with, mainly due to a rise in construction materials costs. Construction work was disrupted for over a month, first slowing down and eventually stoping completely. Work was resumed on October 23, 2008.3
Despite these delays, Carmelton has asked the Ministry of Transportation for permission to open the first segment in June 2010, nine months ahead of schedule. 4 If Carmelton will get this permission, it will open the eastern tunnels first (between HaKerayot and Rupin Interchanges). Opening the eastern section for toll free travel will allow Carmelton to keep its obligation to allow toll free travel for the first few months after opening the project, thus allowing the company to charge tolls on the western section, which will open later, from day one.
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