Betar Illit Mayor Rav Meir Rubinstein is concerned with the chronic issue of prolonged delays for motorists leaving Gush Etzion and entering the capital via the Tunnels Highway. He questions why most of the inspection booths are closed most mornings, resulting in unacceptable delays for drivers heading out of the area. The mayor calls on military officials to invest additional manpower in manning the Tunnels Road checkpoints towards addressing the untenable situation.
Rubinstein explains the highway is a lifeline for residents of Betar Illit, and the time required to pass inspection booths on the highway is an integral component of day-to-day life and has a direct impact on one’s ability to earn a livelihood. He points out the situation has worsened of late, making the trip an arduous one as only one or two lanes are operating for thousands of motorists.
In addition, the mayor points out the area’s population continues to grow and road expansion plans must be addressed as the one lane on the highway in each direction is insufficient as “hundreds of thousands of people use this road regularly”.
The mayor adds that the situation is that is one travels on the “long and bumpy road via Ein Kerem, it often takes less time than the Tunnels Highway and this demands the attention of the Ministry of Transportation in addition to the need to clarify that representatives of the defense establishment must address these issues”.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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One Response
The problem isn’t just the fact that at any given hour of the day, only 2 of the lanes at the inspection point are open (out of 4 or 5).
The bigger problem is the bottleneck that comes afterward. The mayor is right that when they built the tunnels, they didn’t realize that it would become a major thoroughfare (and if they did, they didn’t plan for it). So there are 4 lanes at the inspection point which all converge to a 2-lane highway. While opening all the inspection lanes would help alleviate the backup until that point, it won’t help the bottleneck.
They need an alternative road from the entire Gush Etzion area into Yerushalayim.