As part of its billion-dollar effort to expand its national rail network, Israel will seek global interest later this year and in 2013 on two design-build contracts for key rail projects in the country’s northern region, its most populous.State-owned Israel National Roads Co., which oversees the country’s overall rail expansion, will manage the planned procurement of the two lines, totaling about $150 million.

Israel's Transport Ministry is studying a plan to build a new port in the Red Sea city of Eilat. The so-called Southern Gateway project would involve closing the existing port at the southern end of the city and digging a canal along its northeastern edge adjacent to the border with Jordan. The cost of the project is estimated at over $3 billion.

Israel's Highway 1, a key east-west artery linking Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, is getting a long-overdue $800-million upgrade. The project involves expanding to six lanes a winding 16-kilometer, four-lane segment that runs through the Judean Hills as well as construction of new supporting infrastructure.

Israeli Energy and Water Minister Uzi Landau has instructed the Israel Electric Corp. to advance a project that would connect the country to the European power grid by way of Cyprus and Greece. Officials of the state-owned power company are set to sign an agreement soon with DEI-Quantum Energy—an entity owned by Greece's largest utility, a Cypriot bank and private investors—for a feasibiilty study of the first 270-kilometer segment to connect with the Cyprus power network.

The deteriorating condition and potential reconstruction of the Mughrabi bridge, located in Jerusalem's Old City, is getting a temporary fix despite controversy between Israelis and Palestinians.

NTA The first of seven lines will be 23 kilometers long and have 22 stations. NTA Set for completion in 2017, project construction is estimated to cost $2.5 billion. With about 400,000 residents and more than 3.3 million in its metropolitan area, Israel's second-largest city, Tel Aviv, is finally getting a mass transit system. After decades of false starts, work has begun on the first of seven planned lines of a combined light-rail and bus rapid-transit network. Estimated at $2.5 billion, it is the most expensive civilian transport project ever undertaken in Israel.The launch comes a year after the cancellation

Israel Natural Gas Lines has signed an agreement with Italy's Micoperi Marine Contractors, Ravenna, to plan and construct a floating offshore terminal along the country's central Mediterranean coast to better ensure its supply of liquified natural gas. The $140-million project is expected to help Israel meet growing demand and counteract not only undependable natural-gas supplies from Egypt but also the current unavailability of supply from a large offshore gas field. Discovered in 2009 about 50 miles west of Haifa in the Mediterranean Sea, the Tamar field has an estimated 8.3 trillion cu ft of natural-gas deposits, but it is not

Israel is pushing through two new energy projects to meet expanding needs with limited resources.State-owned Israel Electric Corp. (IEC) is seeking a partner to build an additional co-generation plant, valued at between $500 million and $600 million, at a site in northern Israel. The 450-MW plant would be located at Alon Tavor, near Afula, next to an existing facility.  A request for information (RFI), which was set to close on Oct. 1, says the investor would hold at least a 51% stake and possibly up to a 100% stake in the project. If the holding is less than 100%, IEC

Chinese construction giant China Civil Engineering Construction Corp. has won its second major tunneling project in Israel, teaming with an Israeli firm on a $170-million design-build rail-line tunnel contract. The team beat several other joint ventures of overseas firms and Israeli partners.CCECC and Danya Cebus Ltd., Tel Aviv, are digging two parallel, 4.85-kilometer-long tunnels underneath Mount Gilon for the 23-km line that will connect the cities of Carmiel and Acre in northern Israel. The estimated $800-million project is set for completion by the end of 2014, with operation expected a year later. The project includes two new train stations, construction

A Chicago developer has signed an agreement for Israel's largest-ever seismic retrofit and upgrade project to bring 24 apartment buildings in a Tel Aviv suburb in compliance with stricter earthquake building standards. The $78-million project in Bat Yam also involves adding 2.5 floors to each building. Courtesy of Copter-Fix Aerial Photography Seismically upgraded apartment building complex in a Tel Aviv suburb will include extra floors and structurally boosted elevators. Courtesy of Copter-Fix Aerial Photography Buildings are in the Syrian-African Rift where quakes have occurred; new laws in Israel have toughened building codes. Israel lies along the Syrian-African Rift, an active