Jerusalem plans revolutionary green space over city highway

Hi-tech park, housing units, commercial and open public spaces in new area to be built on top of Begin Highway

Jerusalem is planning to build a revolutionary new neighborhood and hi-tech park overlooking a highway that runs through the city, the municipality announced Tuesday.

The plans call for a 70,000-square-meter (750,000 square foot) high tech park, modeled on the campuses of Harvard or Stanford in the US.

The new area is to straddle a section of the Begin Highway between Givat Mordechai and Givat Shaul.

Illustration of planned development to be built above Jerusalem’s Begin Highway. (Dagan Advanced Visual Solutions)

The new neighborhood will also feature 1,830 new homes, half of them small apartments designed for young families, as part of the mayor’s vision to encourage young people to move to, and stay in, the city.

It will include, as well, 250 units of assisted living and 13,390 square meters (144,000 square foot) of commercial areas and open public spaces.

The centerpiece of the new development, which will sit directly over the highway, will be a 70-dunam (17-acre) green park with bike tracks, walking paths and cafes.

Illustration of planned development to be built above Jerusalem’s Begin Highway. (Dagan Advanced Visual Solutions)

“In order to make up for a lack of space we thought outside the box and designed a revolutionary plan to create parks and green spaces out of nothing,” Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat said in a statement.

The Begin Highway is the main artery for traffic heading south-north through the city.