The northern section of Kvish (Highway 6/ Yitzchak Rabin Highway) from Yokneam to the Tel Kashish Interchange opened to traffic as planned on Wednesday morning, 6 Kislev, according to the roadway management company, the Cross Israel Highway Company, which manages the project. The length of the section is about five kilometers and includes traveling through the Yokneam tunnel, the three-level interchange of Tel Kashish, and a ride on the Viaduct Bridge, about 700 meters to the northeast.

The inauguration of the new road, due to take place a day earlier, but the ceremony was canceled due to the warfare taking place in southern Israel. The opening was attended by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Minister of Transportation Yisrael Katz. Both were present at the meeting of the Political-Security Cabinet on Tuesday as Hamas sent hundreds of rockets into Southern Israel.

The Yokneam Tunnel, named after former Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, has three routes in each direction and constitutes a significant part of the future Highway 6. The tunnel begins at the Yokneam Junction and ends in the Tel Kashish area, where a system interchange was built to eliminate traffic jams at the Tishbi Junction and change the face of the entire area. The tunnel was dug by the Shapir Engineering Company and the Italian tunnel company Impresa Pizzarotti by means of a special digging machine that arrived from Italy.

This first section is part of a broad project to extend Kvish 6 north, which consists of two sections, including the construction of 21 kilometers of highway, the mining of three double tunnels – Yokneam (1.7 km long), Rechasim (2.5 kilometers long) and Ibtin (560 meters long), and the construction of two systemic interchanges. The opening of the second segment is expected in the first quarter of 2019.

The Trans-Israel Highway Company is the government’s execution arm for the management of the project, which is carried out at a cost of about NIS 2.5 billion, about NIS 100 million per kilometer. The company also manages the light rail project between Haifa and Nazareth and other projects on behalf of the Transportation Ministry.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)