Plan to cover Jerusalem’s Begin Highway receives 700 objections

The plan to cover Jerusalem’s Begin Highway, which would create 214 dunams (53.5 acres) of new space above the road, is set to hear objections. This final hurdle before approval will be challenging because hundreds of objections have been filed.

Under the plan, a 1.6-kilometer stretch of Begin Highway will be covered, linking Beit Hakerem and Givat Ram. Above the road will be a 53-dunam (13.25-acre) park, 2,000 housing units, and more.

The objections began being heard at the start of the week by Adv. Shahar Levinson, who was appointed by the Jerusalem District Planning and Building Committee. Since the plan includes an exceptionally large number of 685 objections, including those submitted by private companies, regulatory bodies, and state institutions — this phase is spread over three full days: two days in which the objections will be heard for almost 12 hours each day, and another day that will last about eight hours. At the end of this phase, a report of Levinson’s recommendations will be drafted, after which the Jerusalem District and Planning Committee will decide whether to approve the plan.

Most of the objections are from residents, but several large organizations have submitted objections to the plan including: Israel Land Authority (ILA), which insists building permits are linked to the completion of the treatment of the contaminated land in the nearby Beit Hakerem industrial and commercial zone; the Government Housing Department, which says the plan will harm the activities of the nearby Israel Geology Institute; BaySide Corp. which says the covered area will harm the activities of the Hebrew University tech park; and even Jerusalem Municipality, one of the project’s developers.

The progress of the Begin Cover Plan is major news for the city, both because of its central location and because such a move has not yet been undertaken in Israel. Although there are several examples of such initiatives around the world that have been realized, in Israel such a plan has not yet been completed.

The Ayalon Highway plan

The Ayalon Highway Cover Plan in Tel Aviv, an idea that was raised even before the Begin Cover Plan, was supposed to be the first of its kind in the country but has been almost entirely shelved and now only includes the widening of several bridges.