Highway 5 (Israel)

Israeli Highways routebox


highway= 5
hebrew= כביש חוצה שומרון ("Kvish Hotze Shomron")
meaning= Cross Samaria Highway
length= 37
direction=East - West
classification=Expressway
start=Tel Aviv (Glilot Junction)
destinations=

* Ramat HaSharon
* Hod HaSharon
* Petah Tikva
* Rosh HaAyin
end= Ariel (Gitai Junction)
junctions=

* Glilot Interchange
* Morasha Interchange
* Yarkon Interchange
* Kessem Interchange

Highway 5, or the Trans-Samaria Highway ( _he. כביש חוצה שומרון, "Kvish Hotze Shomron"), is one of Israel's main highways, connecting the Mediterranean coast immediately north of Tel Aviv with the central Sharon plain and Ariel and other Israeli settlements in Samaria (northern West Bank).

The name "Highway 5" is commonly used to describe a section of the highway running from the road's western end at the Glilot Interchange until where it crosses the Green Line near Elkana. In this capacity it intersects and creates a connection between four important arterial freeways in the northern Tel Aviv area - The Coastal Highway (Highway 2), the Ayalon Highway (Highway 20), Geha Highway (Highway 4) and the Cross-Israel Highway (Highway 6). Past the Green Line, however the name "Kvish Hotze Shomron" (Cross-Samaria highway) is used to describe the entire highway's length starting from Glilot and continuing east towards the Jordan Valley. The highway's section from the Green Line to Gitai Avisar Junction has also been dedicated as "Derekh Haim" (Haim's Road, but also "Way of Life") after the late Haim Landau, a former Minister of Transportation.

"Highway 5" with its 3-5 high-capacity lanes in each direction initially reached only the up to the Green Line, and served mainly the densely populated Gush Dan area. In the West Bank the main road was still the old Road 505, which is now partially closed to Jewish transportation. In the beginning of the 1990s, with the growth of Ariel and the settlements around it, arose the need for a more modern road, than the single-lane low-quality Road 505. Therefore, "Highway 5" was extended some 20 Km to the east of the Green Line, ending almost within sight of Ariel and serving the largest block of the Israeli settlements in Samaria counting about 50000 people, as well as the massive Industrial area Barkan located halfway between the Green Line and Ariel. To this day this section of "Highway 5" remains one of the biggest infrastructure projects that Israel has undertaken in Judea and Samaria.

Officially, Highway 5 ends at the Gitai Avisar Junction east of Barkan where it merges into Road 505 which continues east past Ariel until Petza'el which is located on Route 90, the north-south road parallel to the Israel-Jordan border in the Jordan Valley. The extension of Highway 5 from the Gitai Avisar Junction until Ariel Junction, which was planned for 2007 is currently postponed without a definitive time schedule.

Interchanges