Greens tell minister: Stop T.A. rail project
By Sharon Kedmi 25/01/2007
Haaretz
The winning group in the tender for the Tel Aviv light rail has been
announced, but the battle surrounding the excavation method isn't over
yet. TheMarker has found that the Green Party and environmental
factions in Tel Aviv have approached National Infrastructure Minister
Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, urgently requesting the suspension of the
project until the issue of excavation is clarified. They have also
demanded that the water authority be included in the process
immediately, and threaten to turn to the courts if these steps aren't
taken.
The environmentalists are demanding that Ben-Eliezer, as the authority
responsible for the water economy in Israel, intervene immediately.
The concern, TheMarker found, is the deep mining method proposed by
MTS, the company awarded the tender, which could cause environmental
damage due to the large quantities of ground water that will have to
be pumped out during digging.
According to estimates made by rail-engineering consultants, the
mining method MTS proposes involves pumping 50 million cubic meters of
water during the five-year construction period, as compared to about
four million cubic meters in the conventional "cover and cut" method
proposed by tender loser Metro Rail. Additionally, there is a risk of
emission of poisonous subterranean gases along part of the route.
Metro Rail has also approached the tenders committee on the issue. A
discussion among the specialists on the committee, however, concluded,
on the basis of the information available to them, that the deep
mining method poses no problem.
Ben-Eliezer's office confirmed that the protests had been received,
and said they had been forwarded to the authorized entities in the
Water Commission.