Highway 20 (Israel)

Infobox Israel highway


highway= 20
hebrew= נתיבי איילון ("Netivei Ayalon")
meaning= Ayalon Highway
length= 29
direction= North - South
classification= Freeway
start= Rishon LeZion (Holot Interchange)
destinations=
*Holon
*Herzliya
*Bat Yam
*Tel Aviv
*Givatayim
*Ramat Gan
end= Herzliya (Begin Interchange)
junctions=
*Holon Interchange
*Kibbutz Galuyot Interchange
*Glilot Interchange

Highway 20, more commonly Ayalon Highway ( _he. נתיבי איילון, "Netivey Ayalon") is a major intracity freeway in Gush Dan, Israel. The road runs along Tel Aviv's center eastern border from north to south (with a planned east-west branch as well) and connects all of the major highways leading to the city - such as Highway 4 from Ashdod and the Southern regions, Highway 2 from Haifa and the Northern regions, Highway 5 from the East, and Highway 1 from Jerusalem and the Southeast. The Ayalon Highway is heavily travelled and over 750,000 vehicles per day use its main section [http://www.ayalonhw.co.il/template/default.asp?maincat=3&catid=2&parentid=187&pageid=188] . It consists of a multi-lane highway with a multi-track railway located between the opposite travel lanes. Some of the highway's route is along the Ayalon River, hence its name.

Background

Before the construction of the Ayalon Highway, all the major inter-city highways leading to Tel Aviv terminated in the outskirts of the city. This created major traffic congestion in the entry and exit points and made driving through the city very difficult. Moreover, before the highway, Tel Aviv had two separate railway stations, one in the north and one in the south, which were not connected. Thus passengers wanting to travel to the South of the country could only do so from the southern station and those who wanted to travel to the North could only do so from the northern (Central) station. Even worse, trains from the northern part of the country could not travel to the southern part of the country without bypassing Tel Aviv from the East, making train travel in Israel very inefficient. Finally there was the problem of the Ayalon River, which went through parts of Tel Aviv and would sometimes cause flooding.

To solve these problems, as early as the 1950's ideas were raised regarding using the route of the river as a transportation corridor, but it wasn't until the mid-1960's that the government began planning. In the 1970's a government-owned company, "Ayalon Highways Ltd.", was set up to construct the highway. The first phase included construction of a concrete channel for the Ayalon River to alleviate the flooding problem. In 1982, the first section of the road opened, and in 1991 the final section of the central part of the road was completed. This section connects Route 1 in the south with Route 5 and Route 2 in the north. A railway with four stations was built in the center of the highway, which provided for the long-sought connection of Israel's railway network through Tel Aviv.

In the early 1990s the construction of a southern section of the highway had started. This section goes from the HaHagana raiway station through the southern Tel Aviv suburbs of Holon, Bat Yam and Rishon LeZion and connects to Highway 4 north of Yavne. After the highway splits with the Ayalon River at Highway 1, it goes on the route of a road called Heyl HaShiryon Road (דרך חיל השריון, meaning "Way of the Armoured Corps"), then on the route of Yigael Yadin Road until Wolfson Interchange, where it goes on the route of Yigal Allon Road (דרך יגאל אלון).

The road's impact

The road and railway had a major impact on the Tel Aviv region. While quite congested at times it nevertheless alleviated traveling to and through Tel Aviv. Considerable real estate development of offices, shopping, and housing occurred along the route, so much so, that Tel Aviv's Central Business District lost much of its importance as many businesses relocated to near the road. Israel Railways saw huge increases in passenger numbers now that north/south trains could travel through Tel Aviv instead of around it.

Future plans

Currently heavy construction activity is taking place to add more lanes in the southern part of the highway, to complete the construction of a second overpass in the Holon interchange and place railroad tracks in the median of the highway. An east-west branch "Ayalon East", from Highway 5 to the Tel Aviv University railway station along the path of the Yarkon River has been planned, but is still not approved. [ [http://www.ayalonhw.co.il/projects/project.asp?ID=36 About the Ayalon East project, from the official website] ] Currently the northern terminus of the road is in Herzliya, but approved plans are in place to extend it further north to near kibbutz Shefayim.

The central section of the road is built along the banks of the Ayalon River. However, Israel railways is in desperate need of adding a fourth railroad track in that area and no space exists to do so but "on top" of the river itself. Several suggestions have been made to solve this problem, ranging from diverting the entire river through Jaffa, to building an elevated highway, to creating a man-made lake for capturing flooding overflow south of the city and burying the river in a large diameter pipe and constructing the railway on top of it. All these solutions involve great cost and no decision has been made yet on how to proceed.

The long-term projection is for Route 20 to run as far north as Hadera. However, this has garnered very strong opposition from environmental groups, since the road would have to cross a nature preserve and other sensitive environmental areas. These groups suggest widening Route 2 (the so-called "Coastal Highway"), an existing expressway north of Tel Aviv which roughly parallels (several kilometers to the west) Route 20's future route, instead of extending Route 20 northwards.

Interchanges

Northbound Ayalon continues on to its terminus at Menachem Begin St. in Herzliya.

External links

*he icon [http://www.ayalonhw.co.il Ayalon Highways Ltd.] - Official site. Includes up to the minute traffic reports and live traffic camera views.

References