(haipo) - A cable car, which will connect the heart of the bay and Check Post to the Technion and the university, was planned in recent years and agreements were signed, but the incoming mayor, Einat Kalish Rotem, opposes the project. What will be the consequences of canceling the project, if it is canceled, and is there a chance?
In about three years, a cable car will pass from Check Post to the Technion and Haifa University. The goal is to facilitate access to Haifa for students, or for those who work near university campuses in the city. The project is fully funded by the Ministry of Transportation and its cost is estimated to be close to 300 million NIS. Throughout the election campaign of Mayor Einat Kalish Rotem, she spoke out many times against the plan and even after the elections and before taking office she claimed that the project would not be completed.
On Saturday we will mark two years since the great fire in Haifa (24/11/2016). One of the lessons from the fire in the municipality was the need for a double exit from the neighborhoods.
One of the neighborhoods that was affected by the fire was the new Romema neighborhood (and Givat Oranim next to it). The Romema neighborhood can be reached through several streets, and when parts of the neighborhood burned and many parents and grandparents arrived, in order to evacuate the kindergartens and the "Romema" elementary school, the fact that it was possible to exit from several roads, helped a lot in the evacuation, and it was still not easy to evacuate the neighborhood.
The engineering manager then thought about what would have happened if the fire had hit a neighborhood that has one exit - one road through which people enter and leave the neighborhood and to which dozens of relatives would have come to evacuate the children. City Engineer Ariel Waterman He pledged after the fire that one of the lessons learned from the fire is the need for a double exit for the neighborhoods and that within a year it will be possible to see new roads that will connect the Moriah axis to the coastal road and also ease the congestion on the Freud road.
In practice, beyond the plans, work has not yet begun in the field to open another exit for neighborhoods with one exit and the claim is that funding for the construction of the roads has not yet been obtained. The question is whether a municipal attempt to cancel a project of the Ministry of Transportation may not sabotage future plans with the Ministry of Transportation, whose managers want to promote the cable car project.
It should be noted that if it finds a way to cancel the project, the municipality may find itself, apparently, facing lawsuits for the agreements that were violated. At the current stage, the person budgeting for the project is the Ministry of Transportation and the future operator of the cable car is a franchisee, so the municipality will not finance the construction of the cable car or its operation. Moreover, Kalish Rotam said in her campaign that there are better ways in her eyes to utilize the hundreds of millions that will be invested in the project in order to improve public transportation in the city. If the project is canceled, there is no reason to assume that those millions will be invested in public transportation in the city and not in the cable car.
In previous years as well, mayors in Haifa found themselves promoting programs that began to weave skin and sinews even during the mayor's time, who preceded them. This was also the case with projects whose planning began during the time of former mayor Amram Metzna, but were implemented only during the term of office of the previous mayor Yona Yahav. After years of planning and considerable financial investment, sometimes even if the current mayor does not want to continue a project that was practiced during the mayor's time, which preceded him, it is not always possible to stop the projects and moreover there is a horrendous waste of many years of work and money, which went down the drain every time There will be a change of government in the leadership of the city together with the mayor, who ends his position, will throw in the trash the plans that were started during his term of office.
In Haifa there is one cable car that has been operating for many years and goes from Bat Galim to the French Carmel. A few years ago, the Gordon Academy began funding the college's employees and students with a free cable car ride, and some students arrive at Bat Galim by car or public transportation and take the cable car up to the college. Of course, when there are strong winds or rains the cable car is disabled and sometimes the students are late or have to find an alternative means of transportation. For the most part, there is satisfaction among the students, but of course the cable car mainly serves students who do not live in Haifa and use it to get into the city.
One of the possible consequences of trying to cancel the project at such an advanced stage is damage to the relationship with the Ministry of Transportation. The cable car project reflects the Ministry of Transportation's perception of what can benefit public transportation in the city, and the attempt to cancel the project may mean that requests on other issues to the Ministry of Transportation regarding urban needs, apparently, will not be answered as they have been until now. If there is an actual attempt to cancel the project after agreements have been signed and the first millions have been invested, the impression may be created that the municipality is taking it easy with signed contracts or the plans of the Ministry of Transportation, and then considering once more investing money in the city may sound seemingly acceptable.
from the Ministry of Transport They did not agree to respond to the article.
from the municipality It was stated in response that the municipality will not finance the operating cost of the cable car.