High-speed Railway To Jerusalem - Construction

Construction

Construction began in 2001 and was divided into multiple sections:

• Tel Aviv – Ben Gurion Airport (western part of Railway 27) – the line begins approximately 6 km southeast of Tel Aviv's HaHagana Railway Station, where it branches off from the Tel Aviv – Lod railway through a tunnel under the northern set of lanes of Highway 1 and the northern set of tracks of the Tel Aviv – Lod railway, at a point located between the Ganot and Shafirim interchanges, and from there connects to Ben Gurion's Terminal 3. Construction was completed in 2004 and regular service to the airport started in October of that year.
• Ben Gurion Airport – Kfar Daniel (eastern part of Railway 27) – from terminal 3 the line continues to the southeast, passing over a 550 m bridge over Highway 1, then crosses over Highway 40 and the Eastern Railway, proceeds to another bridge over Highway 443 and continues towards the Anava Interchange where it branches off into Modi'in through a series of bridges and tunnels. The line also connects with the Eastern Railway near the Lod interchange providing a connection between the airport and the Lod Railway Station to the south. Construction started in 2004 and ended in 2007.
• Kfar Daniel – Latrun (Section A) – includes a 1.2 km railway bridge, the longest in Israel (completed in 2008). This section was built by Danya Cebus and completed in 2011, at a cost of NIS 250 million.
• Latrun – Sha'ar HaGai (Section B) – includes a 3.5 km tunnel under Canada Park, the tender for which was awarded in July 2010. Excavation of the tunnel by TBM began in February 2012. The section is slated to be completed in 2015. It is being constructed by the Israeli construction firm Minrav in association with the Russian company Moscow MetroStroy at a cost of NIS 560 million. Tunnel excavation started on February 6, 2012 with one TBM. Each TBM costs NIS 100 million (not including NIS 100 million in supplementary equipment) and weighs about 1,800 tons. It is expected to excavate 20 m each day.
• Sha'ar HaGai and Mevaseret Zion (Section C) – the tender was awarded in September 2009 and preliminary site work began November 2009 with expected overall completion in 2014–2016. By far the most complicated part of the project, it involves two bridges and several tunnels, one of which, tunnel 3, will be the longest in Israel. This tunnel will be composed of a pair of parallel tunnels, each 9.2 m wide and 11.6 km in length, three quarters of which will be bored using two TBMs working simultaneously from the west and the remainder bored conventionally from the east. The companies performing this work are the Israeli firm Shapir Civil & Marine Engineering Ltd. in partnership with the Italian engineering firm Impresa Pizzarotti & C. S.p.A. Conventional boring of tunnel 3 from east to west started in March 2012 while TBM excavation from west to east started in September 2012 and is expected to take about two years.

• Mevaseret Zion – Jerusalem Binyanei HaUma Railway Station, Jerusalem (Section D) – includes two bridges, two parallel single-track tunnels 800–900 meters in length, and a 2.9 kilometre tunnel. Completion is estimated to take four years. The tender for construction was awarded in the fall of 2009 to Hofrey Hasharon Ltd. and the German holding company Max Bögl. The estimated cost is NIS 640 million, not including bridge 10 which will cost an additional NIS 138 million and will be based on the design of the Črni Kal Viaduct in Slovenia. This section is supervised by Dana Engineering.