The construction seems endless, but only a projected 18 months remain until the 28-minute high-speed train route, with Israel’s longest bridge, its highest, a nature reserve, and the Mideast’s largest tunnel, from Tel Aviv and Jerusalem is to open.
By Ofer Petersburg
For years, we’ve heard talk of the fast train between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Innumerable data, schedules, company names, problems, disagreements—but as of late, this grandiose project has been transforming into something real. You can already sense its impending grandeur: passing on bridges over beautiful abysses, travelling several minutes in a dim tunnel, and emerging from the earth to discover Jerusalem before you.
Tunnels 1 & 2: Above and beneath Sha’ar Hagai
If everything runs according to schedule, a year and a half from now, a train at 160 km an hour will depart four times an hour and carry us between the capital and the nonstop city in just two minutes shy of a half hour. This large and impressive project includes 57 km of tracks, and its cost is estimated as some 7 billion shekels. It includes five tunnels and ten bridges, about 700 engineers, and hundreds of other professionals working three shifts around the clock.
According to Boaz Tzafrir, the CEO of Israel Railways, the majority of the work has been completed, and all that remains now are some completing measures: laying tracks, signaling systems, etc. Minister of Transport Yisrael Katz intends to inaugurate the project at the beginning of 2018 along with the upgraded highway to Jerusalem, currently being constructed in full swing.
The first tunnel on the route from Tel Aviv to the capital is about 3.6 km long and passes from Latrun to Sha’ar Hagai. In actuality, it’s two adjacent tunnels, with a separate one for each direction of travel.They were dug, for the first time in the country, by a Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM): a huge rotating cylinder that digs a circular path while installing concrete sides. The TBM is about 150 m long with a 10-meter diameter, and it weighs 1,500 tons. It digs 22 meters a day.
This first tunnel is connected to Tunnel 2 by a bridge of a mere 35 meters. Tunnel 2 continues from Sha’ar Hagai to the Yitla River Valley, a distance of 1.2 km.
Tunnel 3: 12 km into the earth
The most impressive feat of engineering completed in Israel: 11.6 continuous kilometers of tunnel (which, again, is composed of two adjacent tunnels) at a depth of 300 meters: the longest and deepest tunnel in the Middle East. We drove through it in a car in about fifteen minutes. The train will traverse it in four.
The travelers from Tel Aviv will enter it by the Yitla River and exit it by the Halilim River, east of Mevaseret Zion. The adjacent tunnels were dug by two TBMs.
Bridge 6: Israel’s longest
There’s not much to elaborate about the view—the picture pretty much says it all. What you don’t see is that it’s Israel’s longest bridge—1,250 meters—passing over the Ayalon River to Latrun. The bridge, which somewhat resembles a Roman aqueduct, is in fact a double bridge: That is, there are two sets of parallel tracks running in opposite directions. The tracks have already been laid on a section.
Bridge 8: Nature-friendly
This beautiful site, where the tracks pass over the Yitla River, is the reason for the many delays in the route’s construction. It’s a nature reserve that conservation groups lobbied to protect as much as possible. To do so, the bridge was constructed using a balanced-foundry method, which allows it to stand on one sole post. This has already won it international awards.
Passengers, too, will be rewarded, but with the wonderful scenery. The bridge is 160 m long and its height is 28 m. It, too, is double. A helipad will be built nearby for emergencies.
Bridge 10: Israel’s highest
Another peak for the country: The highest bridge in Israel—95 meters—passes above Emek Ha’arazim. It was an engineering challenge, and its accomplishment is impressive, as is the view: Overlooking the valley, on the bridge one can already see Jerusalem in the distance. Today, you can cross it on foot, which is what we did, but from the end of the year, tracks will already be laid on it.
From the tracks, the route enters Tunnel 4, which is 2.6 km long. It begins under Highway 1 west of the Sakharov Gardens, and it splits at the end to two tunnels leading to the Jerusalem terminus’s two halls.
ICC Station: Emergency fallout shelter
Upon reaching the terminus in Jerusalem, between the ICC and the Central Bus Station, one suddenly has the impression of being abroad. The train stations sprawls over 72,000 square meters, and the platforms are at a depth of 80 m, which makes it one of the five deepest train stations in the world.
The escalators leading up are already present, and there are three elevators, each with a capacity of 33 persons. Four 320-meter platforms have already been constructed.
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