Carmel Tunnels
Encyclopedia
Tunnel
A tunnel is an underground passageway, completely enclosed except for openings for egress, commonly at each end.A tunnel may be for foot or vehicular road traffic, for rail traffic, or for a canal. Some tunnels are aqueducts to supply water for consumption or for hydroelectric stations or are sewers...
s in and around Haifa
Haifa
Haifa is the largest city in northern Israel, and the third-largest city in the country, with a population of over 268,000. Another 300,000 people live in towns directly adjacent to the city including the cities of the Krayot, as well as, Tirat Carmel, Daliyat al-Karmel and Nesher...
, Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
. 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 Krayot 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
Mount Carmel
Mount Carmel ; , Kármēlos; , Kurmul or جبل مار إلياس Jabal Mar Elyas 'Mount Saint Elias') is a coastal mountain range in northern Israel stretching from the Mediterranean Sea towards the southeast. Archaeologists have discovered ancient wine and oil presses at various locations on Mt. Carmel...
or bypassing Haifa from the east, along the edge of the Jezreel Valley
Jezreel Valley
-Etymology:The Jezreel Valley takes its name from the ancient city of Jezreel which was located on a low hill overlooking the southern edge of the valley, though some scholars think that the name of the city originates from the name of the clan which founded it, and whose existence is mentioned in...
(via Highway 70
Highway 70 (Israel)
Highway 70 is a highway in the coastal plain and Western Galilee in northern Israel. It connects the region of Zikhron Ya'akov to the Lower Galilee and to Kiryat Ata and Shlomi near Israel's border with Lebanon.-Description of the route:...
for example). The tunnels cut the travel time from the Haifa South interchange in the west to the Checkpost interchange in the east from 30–50 minutes down to 6 minutes.
The tunnels were built and are operated as a BOT
Build-Operate-Transfer
Build-own-operate-transfer or build-operate-transfer is a form of project financing, wherein a private entity receives a concession from the private or public sector to finance, design, construct, and operate a facility stated in the concession contract...
project, and driving in the tunnels requires paying a toll
Toll tunnel
A toll tunnel is a special road tunnel whose construction and/or maintenance costs are in part recouped through a toll charged for passing through it. In some instances, tolls have been removed after retirement of the toll revenue bonds issued to raise funds for construction and/or operation of the...
. They were opened to traffic on 1 December 2010.
Overview
The entire project is 6.5 km long. There are four tunnels (two sets of twin tunnels), the 3.5 km long western set and the 1.6 km long eastern set, containing two lanes of traffic in each tunnel. The tunnels were bored in the Carmel Mountains, essentially under the city of Haifa and have three portals: one from the west, near the MATAMMatam, Haifa
Matam , located at the southern entrance to Haifa, is the largest and oldest dedicated hi-tech parks in Israel...
business park (with a connection to the Coastal Highway
Highway 2 (Israel)
Highway 2 is an Israeli highway located on the coastal plain of the Mediterranean Sea. It stretches from Tel Aviv to Haifa. The highway is also called The Coastal Highway or The New Haifa - Tel Aviv Highway ....
and the Old Haifa–Tel Aviv Highway
Highway 4 (Israel)
Highway 4 is an Israeli highway that runs along Israel's entire coastal plain of the Mediterranean Sea, its route in the north runs from the Rosh HaNikra border crossing with Lebanon until the Erez Border Crossing with the Gaza Strip...
), one in the center off Rupin
Arthur Ruppin
Arthur Ruppin was a Zionist thinker and leader. He was also one of the founders of the city of Tel Aviv, and a pioneering sociologist credited as being "The Father Of Jewish Sociology", directing Berlin's Bureau for Jewish Statistics and Demography from 1902 to 1907...
Road (next to the Grand Canyon Shopping Mall
Grand Canyon Shopping Mall
The Grand Canyon is the largest shopping mall in Israel, located in the northern city of Haifa....
), and from the east leading to the Krayot interchange and Highway 22
Highway 22 (Israel)
Highway 22 is a partially built suburban freeway in the Haifa metropolitan area. The freeway is currently 4 km long, connecting downtown Haifa with the city's northern exit to the Krayot area....
.
The project was built by Carmelton, a subsidiary of Ashtrom and Shikun UVinui
Housing & Construction Holding Company Limited
The Housing & Construction Holding Company Limited is one of the largest construction and infrastructure companies in Israel. Affiliated with the Shari Arison group, it is also an international holding and investment company....
, two of the largest infrastructure companies in Israel, and the tunnels were bored by CCECC, a Chinese company specializing in tunnel boring.
In January 2009, boring was completed on the westbound tunnel in the eastern portion of the project. Boring of the last tunnel was completed on June 1, 2009. The cost for drivers is 5.70 NIS for each segment (a drive to the central portal is considered one segment and driving the entire east-west route is composed of two segments). Payment can be made in cash at a toll booth or by video tolling
Video tolling
Video tolling is a technique for toll collection using video or still images of a vehicle's license plate to identify the vehicle for payment.- Technology :...
using automatic number plate recognition
Automatic number plate recognition
Automatic number plate recognition is a mass surveillance method that uses optical character recognition on images to read the license plates on vehicles. They can use existing closed-circuit television or road-rule enforcement cameras, or ones specifically designed for the task...
for subscribers who arrange a billing relationship or by video or transponder tolling for Highway 6
Highway 6 (Israel)
Highway 6 , widely known as the Trans-Israel Highway or Cross-Israel Highway , is a major electronic toll highway in Israel. The highway was officially dedicated as the Yitzhak Rabin Highway , though this name is not commonly used. It started operating in the early 2000s and is being lengthened as...
subscribers. The total cost of the project will be approximately 1.2 billion NIS (300 million US Dollars in December 2008 prices).
History
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 due to objections and other legal matters, at which point Israel Discount BankIsrael Discount Bank
Israel Discount Bank Ltd. , I.D.B., is one of Israel's three largest banks, with 260 branches, and assets of 171 billion NIS .-History:...
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
Chinese people
The term Chinese people may refer to any of the following:*People with Han Chinese ethnicity ....
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 electromagnetic radiation standards. 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 stopping completely. Work was resumed on October 23, 2008.
Despite these delays, Carmelton managed to open the tunnels on December 1, 2010, six months ahead of schedule.