Ayalon Highway

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The Ayalon Highway (Highway 20) (Hebrew: , "Netivey Ayalon") is a major expressway in the Tel Aviv region of Israel. The road goes through the center of the Tel Aviv area 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 South, Highway 2 from Haifa and the North, Highway 5 from the East, and Highway 1 from Jerusalem and the Southeast. The road is very heavily travelled and some 750,000 vehicles per day travel its main section. 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.

Contents

1 Background
2 The Road's Impact
3 Future plans
4 List of Interchanges
5 External links

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 sometime 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 4 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 1990's the construction of a section of the highway had started. This section goes from the HaHagana raiway station through the southern Tel Aviv subrubs 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 is goes on the route of a road called Heyl HaShiryon Road (דרך חיל השריון, meaning "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 travelling 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 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 middle 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 still not approved[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 Shfayim.

The central section of the road is built along the sides 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.

List of Interchanges

Note: The translation of the Hebrew דרך (core meaning: way, path) will be translated here as "route", though it is also translated as "thoroughway" and "access".

In Rishon LeZion and Southward:

Holot Interchange

Route 4 (to Ashdod, Ashkelon, and Gaza Strip)

Moshe Dayan Interchange

Route 441--Moshe Dayan Blvd., Rishon LeZion Yitzhak Rabin Blvd., Rishon LeZion

In Bat Yam and Holon

Komemiyut (Independence) Interchange

Moshe Dayan St., Holon HaKomiyut St., Bat Yam

Yosfetal Interchange

Yoseftal St.

Dov Hoz Interchange

Dov Hoz Blvd., Holon KKL (Jewish National Fund) St., Bat Yam

Wolfson Interchange

Wolfson Hospital HaLochamim (The Fighters) Rd., Holon Ed Koch St., Heinrich Heine St., Somkan St.

Holon Interchange

Route 44 (to Ramleh and Beit Shemesh, Levi Eshkol Blvd., Holon Ben Tzvi Road, Tel Aviv–Jaffa

In Tel-Aviv Jaffa, Ramat Gan, and Givatayim:

Ayalon Darom (South) Interchange

Kibbutz Gluyot Route, Lehi St., Route 1 South (to Jerusalem) ר Note: At this point, Derech Heyl HaShiryon splits off to the northwest and will become Menachem Begin Route in Tel-Aviv and then Route 2 (towards Haifa). After about 300 meters, Route 1 merges into the highway and it begins to straddle the Ayalon River. The last of Route 1's interchanges (Kibbutz Gluyot) is also considered part of the Ayalon Highway.

La Guardia Interchange

La Guardia St., Rosh Pina St.

HaShalom (Peace) Interchange (beside Azrieli Center)

Eliezer Kaplan St., HaShalom Route

Arlozorov Interchange (beside the Ramat Gan Diamond Exchange)

Shefa Tel St. Ze'ev Jabotinsky Route, Menachem Begin Route

HaHalacha Interchange

Bialik St., Rav Shlomo Goren St., Pinhas Sfir St.

Rokakh Interchange

Rokakh Blvd., Isaac Rambah St.

Keren Kaymet (JNF) Interchange

Keren Kayemet Blvd.

North of Tel Aviv:

Glilyot Interchange

Route 5 (to Rosh HaAyin and Ariel)

Herzliya Interchange

Shivat HaCohavim Blvd.

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

External links

() [Ayalon Highways Ltd.] - Official site. Includes up to the minute traffic reports and live traffic camera views.

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