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.

270 Million Shekels!

I found this article on the Israel road people's web site - this is the announcement of the award of the first phase of the project. This part is for the 800m east west bypass that will allow building of the underpass.

This part of the project is supposed to take 8 months. In July the actual work on the intersection will begin. Planned completion - mid 2009!!!!! (followed by all the "gardening" at the end of 2009).

That's 2 years from now! - yikes! - I need to go lie down...

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Photos of the scene

This is what it looks like when you eventually reach the intersection traveling South. (license plates are grayed out to protect the Innocent).

Not much I know...

I must get hold of a helicopter or a crane or something to give the aerial view.

This is one of those signs. this one is on road 4 going North just after the Raanana (central) intersection.

Oooooh - it's so shiny and new!

Why blog a road??

"Tzomet" is the hebrew word for Intersection.

Every morning I have the privilege (?) of travelling down Highway 4 in Israel. I have logged many hours in the section between the Dror and Raanana North intersections. 2 Days ago I noted with excitement that roadwork signs have started going up - this would seem to imply that the long planned ..er.. plan is finally about to happen (or that someone planted some signs in the wrong place).

I decided to blog it so that I could share the long agonising process from start to finish and thus create a tribute to the lumbering fix-it-long-after-thousands-of-man-months-have-been-lost policies of the Israel Roads Authority (or whatever they are called).

Yes - I'm sure that planning and building a new bridge/intersection is a complex, time-consuming process - but give me a tractor/bulldozer for 3 hours and I could sort out all the traffic problems at this intersection.

So that's the start - as we move forward I will give you all the pics and info you could want about the intersection, my route, shortcuts and why it's all such a mess (IMO).

Enjoy the process...