Security sources say that stricter building inspections following Jerusalem’s disastrous Versailles banquet hall collapse in May that killed 23 people and wounded nearly 400 delayed the opening of the four-year, $70 million construction project.
In July, Egged spokesman Ron Ratner had said that “Jerusalem residents would not wake up in the morning and discover that the station had suddenly moved,” but that was exactly what happened. Indeed, many residents arrived at the site of the temporary bus station opposite the Foreign Ministry last Friday morning only to find bulldozers in the process of razing it.
The nine-story bus station, located at the city’s entrance on Jaffa Road was built on the site of the former bus station and is equipped with an underground parking lot, restaurants and shops.