The Jewish Quarter Development Company, which owns the land on which the Western Wall Plaza stands, on Tuesday rescinded a decision made earlier in the day to completely abandon the contentious construction work at the Mugrabi Ascent in the Old City, near the Temple Mount.

The company, which comes under the auspices of the Housing and Construction Ministry, informed the Jerusalem municipality of its decision to cancel the work Tuesday afternoon.

According to the Housing and Construction Ministry, the company had released its announcement following a misunderstanding with the municipality. The company rescinded its decision under pressure from the Housing Ministry, the Prime Minister's Office, the Jerusalem munipality and the Western Wall Heritage Foundation.

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The ministry said that the construction work would continue as planned, in accordance with the law and with government approval.

The director-general of the company, Nissim Arazi, told Haaretz Online earlier Tuesday that he had decided to give up on the initial proposal and investigate alternate solutions.

"I am not getting into considerations of guiding various external sources to authorizing the current plan or obtaining legal authorization. I am completely withdrawing the request and starting to look at other options."

However, the Antiquities Authority announced Tuesday that it will continue with the archaeological "salvaging excavation" originally intended to prepare the ground for the construction of the bridge. The Antiquities Authority explained its decision saying the excavation "was ordered by the government in 2004 in order to allow alternative access to the Mugrabi gate in place of bridge which had collapsed."

Jerusalem Mayor Uri Lupolianski announced Sunday night that he had decided to postpone the original construction of the walkway until zoning authorities had completed plans for the area.

The Mugrabi ramp collapsed during bad weather in 2004. The authorities planned to build a permanent walkway to the Mugrabi Gate to replace the temporary wooden bridge that had been deemed unsafe.

Security officials initially urged an alternative that did not involve destruction or excavation of the Mugrabi Ascent, such as reinforcing the existing structure. Only after they realized that an alternative solution would be complex and also involve excavation, were they persuaded to agree to the plan.

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