Quantity surveyor in Haifa: the Carmel, the Krayot and the Hadera area, and what they change in the bill of quantities
A quantity surveyor in Haifa, an engineer or a registered building technician like Yaakov Avital, meets two very different kinds of ground: kurkar and hamra (a calcareous sandstone and a red sandy soil) on the coastal plain, and limestone, dolomite and chalk on Mount Carmel. The volume of building has changed too: according to Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), construction started on 7,496 dwellings in the Haifa District in 2024, about 41% more than in 2023. Below I explain how the soil, the volume, the concrete and the waste translate into items in the bill of quantities (BOQ).
The Haifa District in numbers: a jump in construction starts
The district includes, among others, Haifa, Nesher, Tirat Carmel, Kiryat Ata, Kiryat Bialik, Kiryat Motzkin and Kiryat Yam (together known as the Krayot), Hadera, Or Akiva, Umm al-Fahm and Baqa al-Gharbiyye. Before the jump in 2024, the figure stood at 5,335 starts in 2023 and 5,318 in 2022.
| Item | Dwellings | Share of starts |
|---|---|---|
| Construction starts, total | 7,496 | |
| of which in buildings with one or two dwellings | 1,136 | 15% |
| of which in buildings with three or more dwellings | 5,979 | 80% |
| of which additions to existing buildings | 380 | 5% |
| Construction completed | 5,109 | |
| Under active construction at year end | 14,827 |
Source: Central Bureau of Statistics, Statistical Abstract of Israel 2025, Table 20.6 (dwellings by stage of construction, district and type of building); 2024 data are preliminary. Base for the shares: 7,496 starts, rounded to a whole percent. The three rows add up to one less than the total, as published.
Of the starts, 80% were in apartment buildings. In such buildings, a quantity surveyor in Haifa sees the effect of the soil mainly in the foundation, shoring and earthworks chapters, and that is where the differences lie between a plot on the coastal plain and a plot on the Carmel.
Kurkar on the coastal plain: why a quantity surveyor in Haifa marks alternatives
The kurkar ridges are built of alternating layers of kurkar, a calcareous sandstone laid down by the wind, and of hamra. The engineering literature describes kurkar as partly cemented sand with sand lenses, so its properties vary even within the same site. Along the coast there is also sand.
What varies within the plot cannot be written as a single solution, so the BOQ includes:
- two drilling alternatives for the piles, dry and with support for the bore walls, or a clear rule for switching between them;
- an extra-over item, added to the drilling rate, for drilling with temporary casing or in bentonite slurry, with an estimated quantity;
- shoring and dewatering items, if the report describes sand lenses or water at the depth of the excavation.
The choice between the alternatives is made by the geotechnical consultant and the structural engineer, based on the soil (geotechnical) report for the plot. The BOQ only makes sure that each alternative is priced in advance. The details are on the BOQ for excavation and shoring page.
The Carmel: rock, karst and sloping plots
In the hills, and on the Carmel too, there is limestone, dolomite and chalk, and the limestone and dolomite have karst. In the BOQ this means rock excavation as an item separate from excavation, an extra-over item for drilling in rock, and void filling with an estimated quantity. When the plot slopes, I also check retaining walls and the backfill behind them, benching in the excavation, and an access road for the concrete pump and the trucks. Background on the soils is on the soil types in Israel page.
Do not copy the neighbours' BOQ. Two plots in the same neighbourhood can sit on different ground, and in kurkar so can the two ends of the same plot. A BOQ built on the soil report of another plot brings untested assumptions into the project.
Concrete and construction waste from Hadera to the Krayot
According to the companies' own websites, checked in October 2026 (a partial list): Hanson Israel has plants in Nesher (the Tel Hanan industrial zone), in Tirat Carmel, in the Kiryat Bialik industrial zone and in the southern industrial zone of Hadera, and Readymix has plants in Kiryat Bialik, Haifa, Tirat Carmel, Zikhron Ya'akov and Hadera.
According to a list of construction waste sites dated 9 February 2019, which comes from the Solid Waste Treatment Division and was published on the website of the Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality, the district has recycling sites in Kiryat Ata, in Jatt, in the Baqa al-Gharbiyye industrial zone and at the Atlit interchange, landfill and recycling in south Hadera, and a transfer station on Road 650 near Pardes Hanna. I have not checked whether all of them are active and licensed today.
As for the cost, I found no official gate fee by region, and no uniform price either: according to a July 2025 report by Israel's State Comptroller, which dealt with municipal waste, entry fees at landfill sites differ from one another by up to about 300%. So the BOQ records the gate fee and the distance as a marked assumption, based on a current written quote from the licensed site.
Questions on supervision and safety before you sign
- Is the contractor registered, and in the right classification? Under the Registration of Contractors for Engineering Construction Works Law, 5729-1969, engineering construction works are carried out only by a contractor listed in the Register of Contractors, within the scope and classification set for them. You can see this in the open database of the Registrar of Contractors.
- Who is the works manager, and was the appointment notified? The Safety at Work Regulations (Construction Work), 5748-1988, require construction work to be managed directly and constantly by a works manager, and the regional labour inspector is notified of the appointment (according to the government services website).
- Who is the site safety officer, and who is the work-at-height instructor? Since 16 October 2026 the safety officer at a construction site has a regulation of its own, Regulation 2A, and according to the 2026 summary by the Israel Institute for Occupational Safety and Hygiene, the safety officer reports hazards and may order dangerous work to stop (the full text of the regulation is worth reading). As for work at height, the Institute explains that the Safety at Work Regulations (Work at Height), 5767-2007, require training by a work-at-height instructor and a valid certificate before a worker is employed at height.
- Who does the design supervision, and what does your site supervisor do? The Engineers and Architects Regulations (Licensing and Reserved Activities), 5727-1967, reserve design supervision (pikuach elyon) of residential, office, public and commercial buildings for licensed engineers and licensed architects, except for a simple structure; this is how the Division for the Regulation of Occupations explained it on 25 August 2021. A site supervisor in full-time supervision or construction review works for you in a different role, and their contract should list what is included.
The answers also affect the BOQ: the works manager and the safety officer are a cost of the contractor, in the general chapter or in the site overheads (preliminaries). More on the construction site safety page.
Professional background
I am Yaakov Avital, a registered building technician listed in Israel's register of certified technicians, and I completed a course for work-at-height instructors (2020). I develop software for producing and checking bills of quantities from a BIM model, I hold professional liability insurance, and I work from drawings and models all over the country. Information about the service is on the quantity surveyor for construction projects page, and what to ask when choosing a quantity surveyor is on the recommended quantity surveyor page.
Frequently asked questions
Is a BOQ for a building on the Carmel different from one on the coastal plain?
Sometimes it is. On the Carmel the sources describe limestone, dolomite and chalk with karst, and on the coastal plain kurkar, hamra and sand, and each has its own foundation and excavation items. What decides in practice is the soil report for the plot.
Why does a quantity surveyor in Haifa write two alternatives for piles?
Because in kurkar the properties vary within the same site, and when the wall of the borehole is not stable it needs support. When the alternative is already priced, switching to it on site is a question of quantity, not of a new price.
Why is the description here general and not by neighbourhood?
Because the verified sources describe the soil only in general terms, and in kurkar the properties vary even within the same site. Only the soil report for a particular plot gives the answer for that plot.
Have a project? Tell me briefly what the project is and what already exists. When the project is a good fit, I usually reply with focused questions and a written quote.
Contact me for a quote* Created with AI for marketing, for illustration only. Not reviewed by Yaakov Avital and not professional advice. Every project must be checked on its own by a professional quantity surveyor and an engineer.