Highway 20 (Israel)

Highway 20, more commonly Ayalon Highway (Hebrew: נתיבי איילון, "Netivey Ayalon") is a major intracity freeway in Gush Dan, Israel. The road runs along Tel Aviv's center eastern border from north to south (with a planned east-west branch as well) and connects all of the major highways leading to the city - such as Highway 4 from Ashdod and the Southern regions, Highway 2 from Haifa and the Northern regions, Highway 5 from the East, and Highway 1 from Jerusalem and the Southeast. The Ayalon Highway is heavily travelled and over 750,000 vehicles per day use its main section[1]. It consists of a multi-lane highway with a multi-track railway located between the opposite travel lanes. Some of the highway's route is along the Ayalon River, hence its name.

Background

Before the construction of the Ayalon Highway, all the major inter-city highways leading to Tel Aviv terminated in the outskirts of the city. This created major traffic congestion in the entry and exit points and made driving through the city very difficult. Moreover, before the highway, Tel Aviv had two separate railway stations, one in the north and one in the south, which were not connected. Thus passengers wanting to travel to the South of the country could only do so from the southern station and those who wanted to travel to the North could only do so from the northern (Central) station. Even worse, trains from the northern part of the country could not travel to the southern part of the country without bypassing Tel Aviv from the East, making train travel in Israel very inefficient. Finally there was the problem of the Ayalon River, which went through parts of Tel Aviv and would sometimes cause flooding.

To solve these problems, as early as the 1950's ideas were raised regarding using the route of the river as a transportation corridor, but it wasn't until the mid-1960's that the government began planning. In the 1970's a government-owned company, Ayalon Highways Ltd., was set up to construct the highway. The first phase included construction of a concrete channel for the Ayalon River to alleviate the flooding problem. In 1982, the first section of the road opened, and in 1991 the final section of the central part of the road was completed. This section connects Route 1 in the south with Route 5 and Route 2 in the north. A railway with four stations was built in the center of the highway, which provided for the long-sought connection of Israel's railway network through Tel Aviv.

In the early 1990s the construction of a southern section of the highway had started. This section goes from the HaHagana raiway station through the southern Tel Aviv suburbs of Holon, Bat Yam and Rishon LeZion and connects to Highway 4 north of Yavne. After the highway splits with the Ayalon River at Highway 1, it goes on the route of a road called Heyl HaShiryon Road (דרך חיל השריון, meaning "Way of the Armoured Corps"), then on the route of Yigael Yadin Road until Wolfson Interchange, where it goes on the route of Yigal Allon Road (דרך יגאל אלון).

The road's impact

The road and railway had a major impact on the Tel Aviv region. While quite congested at times it nevertheless alleviated traveling to and through Tel Aviv. Considerable real estate development of offices, shopping, and housing occurred along the route, so much so, that Tel Aviv's Central Business District lost much of its importance as many businesses relocated to near the road. Israel Railways saw huge increases in passenger numbers now that north/south trains could travel through Tel Aviv instead of around it.

Future plans

Currently heavy construction activity is taking place to add more lanes in the southern part of the highway, to complete the construction of a second overpass in the Holon interchange and place railroad tracks in the median of the highway. An east-west branch "Ayalon East", from Highway 5 to the Tel Aviv University railway station along the path of the Yarkon River has been planned, but is still not approved.^[1] Currently the northern terminus of the road is in Herzliya, but approved plans are in place to extend it further north to near kibbutz Shefayim.

The central section of the road is built along the banks of the Ayalon River. However, Israel railways is in desperate need of adding a fourth railroad track in that area and no space exists to do so but "on top" of the river itself. Several suggestions have been made to solve this problem, ranging from diverting the entire river through Jaffa, to building an elevated highway, to creating a man-made lake for capturing flooding overflow south of the city and burying the river in a large diameter pipe and constructing the railway on top of it. All these solutions involve great cost and no decision has been made yet on how to proceed.

The long-term projection is for Route 20 to run as far north as Hadera. However, this has garnered very strong opposition from environmental groups, since the road would have to cross a nature preserve and other sensitive environmental areas. These groups suggest widening Route 2 (the so-called "Coastal Highway"), an existing expressway north of Tel Aviv which roughly parallels (several kilometers to the west) Route 20's future route, instead of extending Route 20 northwards.

Interchanges

km	Name	Meaning	Location	Road(s) Crossed
Ayalon South
1	מחלף חולות (Holot Interchange)	Sand Dunes	Gan Sorek	(Highway 4)
Under construction
1	מחלף מבוא איילון (Mevo Ayalon Interchange)	Ayalon Gateway	Rishon LeZion	(Route 431)
3.5	מחלף משה דיין (Moshe Dayan Interchange)	Named after Moshe Dayan	Rishon LeZion	File:ISR-HW441.PNG (Route 441)
5	מחלף קוממיות (Komemiyut Interchange)	Named after intersecting street	Bat Yam	HaKomemiyut str.
6.5	מחלף יוספטל (Yoseftal Interchange)	Named after intersecting street	Bat Yam	Yoseftal blvd.
7.5	מחלף דב הוז (Dov Hoz Interchange)	Named after intersecting street	Holon	Dov Hoz blvd.
9	מחלף וולפסון (Wolfson Interchange)	Named after nearby Wolfson Medical Center	Holon	Local Roads
12	מחלף חולון (Holon Interchange)	Named after location	Holon	File:ISR-HW44.PNG (Highway 44) Levi Eshkol blvd.
13	מחלף חיל השריון (Hel HaShiryon)	Named after intersecting street	Holon	File:ISR-HW2 red.PNG (Highway 2) Hel HaShiryon blvd.
Ayalon North
13	מחלף קיבוץ גלויות (Kibbutz Galuyot Interchange)	Named after intersecting street	Tel Aviv	File:ISR-HW2 red.PNG (Highway 1/Highway 2/Route 461) _{Diaspora Ingathering str.}
14	מחלף לה גרדיה (LaGuardia Interchange)	Named after intersecting street	Tel Aviv	LaGuardia str.
16	מחלף השלום (HaShalom Interchange)	Named after intersecting street	Tel Aviv	HaShalom Road
17	מחלף הרכבת (HaRakevet Interchange)	The Train after nearby Tel Aviv Center Railway Station	Tel Aviv	(Route 481)
17.5	מחלף ההלכה (HaHalakha Interchange)	The Halakha	Tel Aviv	HaRav Shlomo Goren str.
19	מחלף רוקח (Rokah Interchange)	Named after intersecting street	Tel Aviv	Rokah blvd.
21	מחלף קרן קיימת (Keren Kayemet Interchange)	Named after intersecting street	Tel Aviv	Keren Kayemet LeYisrael (JNF) blvd.
23	מחלף גלילות מזרח (Glilot Mizrah Interchange)	East Glilot	Ramat HaSharon	File:ISR-HW5 blue.PNG (Highway 5 _{to Highway 2})
25.5	מחלף שבעת הכוכבים (Shiv'at HaKohavim Interchange)	The Seven Stars	Herzliya	File:ISR-HW541.PNG (Route 541)
27.5	מחלף המעפילים (HaMa'apilim Interchange)	The Unlawful Immigrants	Kfar Shmaryahu _{only to North}	File:ISR-HW541.PNG (Route 541)
In planning stages
29	מחלף רשפון (Rishpon Interchange)	Named after location	Rishpon	File:ISR-HW531.PNG (Route 531)