The first section of the eastern ring road to Jerusalem, constructed a decade ago at a cost of hundreds of millions of shekels, will open for use some 10 months from now, Israel Hayom has learned. Although the first part of the road, which connects the northern Jerusalem neighborhood of Anatot to Highway 1, was completed some 10 years ago, the road remained closed due to disputes over budgets and security. The government did confiscate land belonging to Palestinians from Anata to build the road, but the main disagreement had to do with who would fund the security checkpoint to be located before the point where the road links to Highway 1. The necessary budget for the checkpoint has recently been approved and last week the contractor met with officials involved. During the meeting, it was agreed that work to make the road -- which has worn out -- usable and to set up security measures would start this week, and the road would be open for use 10 months from now. This would entail a cost of some 30 million shekels ($8.5 million) above and beyond the original cost of the road. The road in question falls under the administrative and security purview of Civil Administration, the Coordinator for Government Activities in the Territories, the IDF, the Jerusalem Periphery Border Police and the Jerusalem District Police. It runs for a distance of 3.5 kilometers (2.2 miles) from Highway 437 near the Anatot army base to where it links to Highway 1 across from Issawiya Junction, where drivers will be able to turn right toward the French Hill neighborhood or left onto an off-ramp currently under construction that will lead to Naomi Shemer Tunnel and Mount Scopus. A road for Palestinians' use is being paved parallel to the bypass road, along with an underground tunnel that will allow them access to Azaim. "This road is planned to serve both [Israeli and Palestinian] populations, and we are making all the necessary security arrangements so that traffic will flow, both for the settlements and the Palestinians," said Lt. Col. Shai Karmona, head of the Jerusalem Periphery District Coordination and Liaison Department in the Civil Administration. According to current assessments, the new road will reduce the amount of car traffic that passes through the Hizma checkpoint and the Pisgat Ze'ev neighborhood in northeast Jerusalem, which has become one of the capital's most jammed traffic arteries as cars from Judea and Samaria converge there on a daily basis. To ease the traffic that already exists around Naomi Shemer Tunnel and which is expected to grow heavier once the road is open, the Jerusalem Traffic Police are preparing to give precedence to vehicles coming from Highway 1 and allow long influxes of traffic during morning commuter hours through traffic police stationed at the intersections. The bypass road is part of a more extensive plan from the Transportation Ministry that includes building a high-speed 10-kilometer (6-mile) ring road that will bypass Jerusalem to the east, connecting the city's northern neighborhoods to its southern neighborhoods.
