Complex and Controversial, Jerusalem Span Takes Shape

Work is well under way on Santiago Calatrava’s Bridge of Strings at the entrance to Jerusalem. The $55-million steel-and-glass cable-stayed structure has Israel’s longest ever main span at 140 meters. To some activists it also symbolizes the tense relations between Israeli settlers and Palestinians.

Designed by the Spanish architect’s Zurich-based firm Calatrava Valls SA, the curving bridge is part of a 13.8-kilometer light rail line now under construction. The bridge’s slender steel pylon, which soars 118 m above one of the city’s busiest intersections, sits adjacent to a future underground train station for the new Jerusalem and Tel Aviv line. A consortium called Citypass has a 28-year build-operate-transfer contract for the project. It includes French firms Alstom and CGEA Connex, and Israel’s Polar Investments, Harel Insurance and local civil engineering firm Ashtrom. “This is a once-in-a-lifetime proj-ect from an engineering standpoint, with unprecedented international involvement,” says Tzachi Strasser, a civil engineer with Israel’s Gadish Group, project manager on behalf of the client, Moriah, Jerusalem’s municipal-owned development firm.

But that also includes international controversy. France’s Alstom and CGEA Connex are being sued by a pro-Palestinian group in a French court, who say the line serves Jewish settlers living on land “stolen” from Palestinians. A CityPass spokesman contends that the line will serve all residents of Jerusalem and says the issue of Irish unions refusing to train Israeli rail workers is “very insignificant.”

The bridge is designed to cut an S-shaped curve between Jaffa Road and Herzl Boulevard in Jerusalem. A glass embankment running along the bridge’s eastern side will serve as a pedestrian walkway. “This is the first [cabled-stayed] bridge with a curvature of 90° ever built for use by light rail,” says Dan Ben-Amram, planning manager for Moriah. “Initially, Calatrava had proposed using welded steel plates to link the vertical and horizontal parts, but we decided to opt for steel casting on the advice of Cimolai.” Italy-based Cimolai Technology SPA is one of the span’s deck manufacturers on behalf of the contractor, a joint venture of Israel’s Koors Metals and Ramet Ltd.