Collapsed Garage Was Supposed to Support Weight of Train

The parking garage that collapsed last Monday, killing six people, was originally intended to support the weight of a train passing over it, to be built in 2018, Ynet reported on Sunday.

As details of the overall plan emerged, industry sources expressed “shock” over “the very thought of an entire train plummeting to the ground,” with all its passengers.

“This is a colossal engineering oversight,” said Israel David, the engineer commissioned by construction company Danya Cebus to investigate the disaster and oversee the rebuilding of the structure.

“The city’s plans had the Green Line [train], and I cannot even imagine the scope of the (diverted) disaster. It could have been the worst engineering disaster in the history of the country,” he said.

The NTA Metropolitan Mass Transit System, which has charge of the light rail construction in Tel Aviv, eventually decided to divert the train route away from the parking complex.

However, Danya Cebus fortified the structure such that it would be rated to support the weight of the train, in the event the NTA reversed itself and decided to have the light rail pass over the complex.