After countless complaints from the residents of Mount Nof Beit HaKerem and Motsa – Route 16, the new access road to southwest Jerusalem – was inaugurated this week. Will it really ease traffic congestion? It is still too early to determine, but at least the excavations under the residents’ houses will now stop
Published on: 31.8.22 15:38
About a year before the planned date – Route 16, Jerusalem’s new access road which connects Motaz with the Beit interchange on the Begin road – opened last Wednesday to vehicle traffic.
It is still too early to determine whether this is a solution and a significant relief of the traffic congestion in the city, as claimed by the Jerusalem Municipality, Israel Routes and the Ministry of Transportation, but what is certain – the completion of the works will give some peace to the residents of Har Nof, Beit HaKerem and Motsa, who will indeed be left with a multitude of claims about damages caused to their homes but at least they will be able to sleep in peace and without the noise of excavations and explosions.
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Route 16 is actually a new entrance to Jerusalem, and it connects Route 1 from the Moza area to the Givat Shaul industrial area and Beit Street in Jerusalem, near the Givat Mordechai interchange on Menachem Begin Boulevard.
Route 16 is a national transportation infrastructure project carried out using the PPP method (cooperation between the state and the private-business sector), implemented through an inter-ministerial tender committee headed by the Accountant General at the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Transportation and Road Safety and the Jerusalem Municipality through the Israel Routes Company. The winner of the tender is the “Shapir-Pitzrotti” partnership, who established the project and are responsible for operation and maintenance for the next two decades.
It should be noted that the road was opened to traffic about a year before the planned date. “The significant advance of the schedules was made possible thanks to efficient work in the PPP format,” the Ministry of Transportation said.
The length of the road is about 6 km, and it includes 4 tunnels (two in each direction of travel), 7 bridges and 3 interchanges – Moza, Ravida and Bate (near Bate Street, and Shaare Zedek Hospital). The works also included – upgrading the road system the local area, upgrading existing infrastructure and planting about 700 new trees. “The permitted travel speed on the road will be 80 km/h,” the Ministry of Transportation notes, adding that “its construction costs amounted to more than a billion shekels. The road is expected to significantly improve accessibility to Jerusalem, ease the burden of traffic and will allow quick and easy access to the south and west of the city.”
Route 16 (Photo: Ronen Horesh / L.A.M.)
The Ministry of Transportation also notes that “as part of the project, an extensive landscape development was carried out that allows the residents of the city access to the Jerusalem forest and its surroundings while building bicycle paths, leisure and recreation areas and observation points.”
The uniqueness of the project is the method in which the state chose to implement it – PPP – in cooperation with the private business sector, the “Shapir-Pitzrotti” partnership, which finances the construction of the project in exchange for payment for the years of the concession, during which they will also operate and maintain the tunnel and road systems. It should be emphasized that this is not a toll road, and the concession is with the state, which will pay the concessionaire a quarterly payment for operation and maintenance.
The Minister of Transportation and Road Safety, MK Merav Michaeli: “We are inaugurating and are inaugurating today another new entrance to Jerusalem, the eternal capital of the people of Israel. As part of the policy change and the inversion of the pyramid, we must do everything so that this road will eventually serve as many public and mass transportation vehicles as possible so that as many as possible can get to and from our capital. Israel will never give up its capital city nor its security, a security that is peace. This road, this new road, joins a road that we must not neglect, a road of security and peace that we all need. I want to thank the facts and the workers for shortening the time in the project, something that we at the Ministry of Transportation are becoming routine. May we all have a good trip.”
Mayor Moshe Leon adds that “the transportation revolution is already here, and it will result in Jerusalem being the first to get out of the traffic jams. The opening of Route 16 today, even earlier than expected, is an important step in making the entrance to Jerusalem simpler and faster, and it will considerably reduce traffic congestion in the western parts of the city. In the long term, the vision of the city and the Ministry of Transportation is to reduce private vehicle traffic in the city, strengthen public transportation, micromobile traffic, and walkability, thereby promoting community life in a cleaner, more serviceable city that preserves the environment as it faces a better future. I thank Sarah and the ministry Transportation for the cooperation and assistance they provide to dozens of projects in the city.”
Director General of the Ministry of Transportation, Michal Frank: “Congratulations to the residents of Jerusalem and those entering its gates. Route 16 is good news for the residents of the south of the city who will be able to enter and exit in a direct way, thus easing the traffic in the city center. Public transportation services will soon be operating on the new road, to commercial and leisure areas in the south of the city, and when the green line of the light rail is completed, there will be full connectivity for those entering the city via Hana-Vase.”
The Accountant General at the Ministry of Finance, Yahli Rotenberg: “Today we are witnessing the opening of a new entrance to the capital city of Jerusalem. This is great news not only for the residents of West and South Jerusalem, but also for the other drivers whose travel times will be significantly shortened. Thanks to the auction method – with the participation of the private sector and its management through a committee The inter-ministerial tenders and the smart system of incentives established, in which each sector deals with issues in which it has a relative advantage, allows for a significant advance in the schedules. The advance in opening the road to traffic is possible despite many challenges that were discovered throughout the construction period of such a complex project. The project is a direct product of the work of the teams in the department The Accountant General together with the partners in the Ministry of Transportation and Israel Routes Company, as well as the inter-ministerial committee in which the Jerusalem Municipality, the Inbal Company and the budget division of the Treasury also participated.”
Nissim Peretz, CEO of Natibi Israel: “The new Route 16 project is one of the most complex engineering projects carried out in the State of Israel. The road is part of a multitude of transportation solutions for the city of Jerusalem, because for a complex transportation challenge, it is appropriate to have several solutions. Highway 16 is part of a solution to overcrowding and congestion. I hope that the road will make it easier to move into and out of the city. This is a holiday for the residents of Jerusalem and those who come to it.’
Oren Cohen, CEO of the Shapir Pizzrotti franchisee: “This is a project that is the result of excellent cooperation with our Italian partners, which led to an advance in the schedules of a year and two months from the time that was set, despite the corona epidemic that accompanied us during the work period. This is a technological, advanced and efficient road that traveling on it will be significant news for the citizens of Israel in general and the residents of Jerusalem in particular.”