Tel Aviv’s Ayalon Highway to close for electrical work over weekend; trains also impacted
Israel's busiest artery, Route 20, will be shut from late Thursday until Friday at 4 p.m. and again from Saturday night until Sunday morning; most Tel Aviv rail stations also shut
People hoping to travel across Israel over the weekend should prepare for traffic delays and altered public transportation schedules, as large portions of the Tel Aviv-area Ayalon Highway, Israel’s busiest artery, will be closed for most of the weekend starting Thursday night due to necessary electrical work.
Trains in the metro area will also be affected by the electrical work, with limited service in the Tel Aviv and Herzliya area, cutting some routes in two and shortening others.
Route 20, more commonly referred to as the Ayalon, will be closed from 11:30 p.m. Thursday night until Friday at 4 p.m.
It will then remain open Friday night and most of Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath, when road work will not take place, before closing again at 11 p.m. until 5 a.m. on Sunday.
Vehicle traffic will be redirected to alternative routes while the road is closed.
The same electrical work will also affect Israel Railways starting Thursday night, lasting until 4 a.m. on Sunday.
All Tel Aviv train stations except Tel Aviv Savidor Center will be closed, truncating lines that run north-south through the city to destinations nationwide.
The Modiin-Nahariya line will be split into two different lines, one running between Modiin Central, in the middle of the country, and Tel Aviv Savidor Center, and the other between Herzliya and Nahariya in the north
The same will be done for the Beersheba-Nahariya line and the Ashkelon-Binyamina line.
The Jerusalem-Herzliya line will operate in a shortened format, starting at Savidor rather than Herzliya.
Traffic is expected to return to normal levels ahead of the Sunday morning rush- hour commute aat the beginning of the Israeli work week.