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...