Seems complete

Didn't keep it up...

But now it seems to be completed - Yay!

Looking East - July, Sept, Nov

Looking West - May, June and Dec

Bypass opens on 14th Dec - 8 months and 6 days

I clearly got bored by the lack of progress and stopped blogging - but I have been taking photos. And the reason I am once again inspired to write is that the bypass IS OPEN!!! Yes - in keeping with the recent trend of finishing projects on schedule, the dec/07 date has been met. This morning traffic seemed to flow very smoothly -but it could have been the hour (10am) so I'll be watching this week... So the next few posts will be pictures from the last few months.

Of course my work is not done - now begins the actual work on the underpass (I think it will start now??). So I'll keep taking photos and posting them when I feel inspired.

that slow frustrating stage..

Yes - work continues - but not perceptibly. There is sand, and movement of sand, and pipes, and gravel, and big yellow earth moving creatures but no actual new road. This is more painful now because:

1) School holidays have ended and the traffic jams are like - intense -

2) The bridge to Poleg (see picture in another post) was opened earlier than scheduled and is a glorious traffic experience (but I don't go that way to work...)

The most perplexing thing is why there is no urgency to complete the truly traffic-inducing sections first. I guess that's not really so perplexing - it's just the way of these things (sigh..)

Photos this time are of the Kfar Sava side of the northern bypass road (looking East). Note that a month and a half has passed between these 2 photos.

The earth moves

Just at this crucial juncture I changed jobs and so missed the actual start of the serious digging. But now signs are up and earth has been moved and Phase 1 has begun. Of course there is still no improvement in the time taken to get past (it seems to be getting worse).

In the pictures you see.. (Left) - the nice signs that they put up now when there are roadworks - this includes the planned completion date of Dec 07 for this phase - also note digging machine. On the right is where the gas station previously stood (see previous post) - serious progress.

Still no visible activity

Perhaps you were wondering why no posts for 2 weeks - (you probably weren't). Well it's because there has not been any activity at all. There might be some stuff going on behind the mounds of sand on all sides of the junction - but otherwise nothing noticeable.

This really strengthens my reason for doing this - to show how drawn out the process can be.

To pass the time - some more photos. The one on the Left is a gas station that was vacated months go supposedly so that the work on the Raanana junction could start. On the Right is a bridge being built over the railway near the Beit Yehoshua train station. This is going up in most impressive fashion (note giant beams being lifted into place). Also long overdue and in the process creating major traffic jams.