Main Tel Aviv throughway to partly close on weekends for overpass construction
Northbound Ayalon Highway to be blocked this Sabbath between Hashalom and LaGuardia interchanges; work was stopped last year following protests by ultra-Orthodox lawmakers
Tel Aviv’s main highway will be partially closed over the coming weekend due to construction of a new pedestrian bridge spanning the road.
The Ayalon Highway will be closed to northbound traffic between LaGuardia Interchange and HaShalom Interchange from 5 p.m. Friday to 5 p.m. Saturday. Southbound traffic will be open as usual.
Drivers were advised to check the Waze navigation app for updates before driving in the area.
The work will continue for six weekends, the Ynet news site reported.
Work on the Yehudit Bridge was stopped last year following protests by ultra-Orthodox lawmakers opposed to work being carried out on the Sabbath, the Jewish day of rest.
Transportation Minister Israel Katz in August ordered construction on the bridge be delayed by six months, prompting the Tel Aviv municipality to file a petition to the High Court of Justice asking for an injunction to allow work to continue. The High Court of Justice accepted the municipality’s petition on Tuesday.
The ultra-Orthodox Shas and United Torah Judaism political parties condemned the decision and ultra-Orthodox groups said they were organizing protests at the site over the weekend, according to Ynet.
“Shabbat wasn’t given to the people of Israel in order to desecrate it and do renovation work,” said MK Moshe Gafni of United Torah Judaism.
Katz insisted he had ordered the construction freeze because he was unhappy with the highway being closed to traffic at all, but opposition lawmakers and others accused him of only halting the work because of ultra-Orthodox threats.
The Yehudit Bridge will link an area with several high-rise office buildings on the eastern side of the Ayalon Highway just south of Hashalom Interchange — including Google Israel’s office — to the west of the highway, where most of Tel Aviv’s city center is.
The bridge will be 110 meters long (360 feet), 18 meters high, 11 meters wide and weigh over 1,000 tons. It will have a pedestrian and a bicycle lane separated by a central area featuring benches.
The Ayalon Highway, which runs north to south through the eastern part of Tel Aviv, is among the country’s busiest highways.