Highway 20 (Israel)

Highway 20, also called the Ayalon Highway or Netivei Ayalon, is a principal north–south transportation corridor in the Tel Aviv–Jaffa metropolitan area.[1] For the local traffic authority’s jurisdiction, the route extends from Holot Interchange, where it meets Highway 4 in the south, to Begin Street in Herzliya in the north; the broader corridor continues through Herzliya toward Highway 2 south of Netanya.[1] It links Tel Aviv with major roads serving the south, Jerusalem, the east, and the north.[1]

The central stretch between Kibbutz Galuyot and Glilot interchanges was described in a government report as carrying 750,000 vehicles daily and as one of Israel’s busiest traffic corridors.[1] A separate traffic count reported an average of 871,133 vehicles per weekday in both directions in 2021; private cars accounted for 90% of northbound traffic and 88% of southbound traffic.[3] The Ayalon Highway borders the Azrieli Center beside the HaShalom Interchange.[5]

The highway occupies a shared transport corridor with the Ayalon River channel and railway tracks. More than 200 passenger trains use the central Gush Dan rail connection daily, while almost all passenger railway routes in Israel pass through the corridor’s three-track section.[1][6] The National Library of Israel describes the highway as an eastern boundary past which Tel Aviv expanded as new residential and commercial areas developed.[7]

Plans to place transportation routes along the Ayalon River date to the 1950s. The government approved the establishment of Ayalon Highways Ltd. in February 1969, and the company was registered in March 1970 as a joint enterprise of the government and Tel Aviv Municipality, with agreed funding divided 75% to the government and 25% to the municipality.[8] Its initial purposes included developing the river channel and constructing roads, railways, and other transport works. A World Bank loan of $20 million in the late 1960s helped pave the way for the company’s establishment.[9]

A 1972 plan envisioned a canal from the Yarkon estuary to the Ezra neighborhood, a two-lane north–south freeway from Petah Tikva Road to Kibbutz Galuyot Street, railway land, bridges, and interchanges.[8] The first stage was initially scheduled for completion by mid-1976, but the plan was changed in 1975 to permit staged construction. Later projected completion dates moved from 1984 to 1986 and then April 1987; a 1980 audit reported that the freeway parallel to the canal had not yet been paved, attributing delays chiefly to limited budgets.[8]

The first highway section is reported as having opened in April 1982 between Hashalom Interchange and Halakha Bridge.[9] A National Library of Israel archival caption from the 1981 photographs series calls an item “The Ayalon highway in its first stage.”[10] In 1990, an archive entry recorded the opening of a new part of the highway connecting with Glilot Junction, although the record gives no details about its length or the opening itself.[11]

The highway later grew through new interchanges and extensions. Construction on a southern section between Dov Hoz and Yoseftal interchanges began in 2000; the work replaced traffic lights with interchanges, included four interchange structures costing NIS 500 million, and provided infrastructure for a planned railway link to Rishon LeZion.[12] The project was intended to connect Holtz Interchange, which meets Highway 1, with Holot Interchange on Highway 4, giving residents of Rishon LeZion, Holon, and Bat Yam direct access to central metropolitan Tel Aviv.[12]

A northern extension reached Shefayim Interchange, where Highway 20 meets the Coastal Highway, Highway 2. Northbound traffic could use the connection through Tel Aviv by April 2017. At the time, southbound access still awaited completion of the section between the East Kfar Shmaryahu and Seven Stars interchanges.[13] By 2022, Ynet described the highway as 34 kilometers long, from Rishon LeZion to Shefayim, with lane numbers having grown from two to four and further expansion underway.[14]

Highway 20 serves as a major transport artery for Gush Dan, but traffic growth and congestion have constrained its performance. A 1973 plan envisioned a fast, multilane road carrying 200,000 vehicles a day by 1985.[3] A traffic count conducted at the end of 1997 recorded about 400,000 vehicles a day, carrying more than half a million people; the busiest section, between Arlozorov and Hashalom interchanges, carried about 220,000 vehicles daily.[15] In 2021, the reported weekday average was 871,133 vehicles, 2% above the 2019 figure.[3]

The highway’s central section between Highway 1 and Glilot had five lanes by 2022, and the report said it could no longer be widened. Congestion continued despite additions of width, connections, interchanges, and ramps.[3] Peak-period traffic reduced capacity, particularly southbound. On the northbound Mavo Ayalon–Holon Junction segment, morning-peak speeds fell from 23 km/h in 2019 to 21.5 km/h in 2021.[3]

The road’s urban setting has shaped planning for nearby streets. A 2006 study described the freeway and a new suburban rail system as sharing “the same corridor,” with a light-rail subway planned beneath it.[16] A 2009 study placed the highway parallel to Begin Road and discussed efforts to transform Begin Road into the main street of Tel Aviv’s central business district. Proposals for Begin Road evolved from criticism of an auto-oriented traffic artery toward boulevard alternatives and a multi-way boulevard design; although the boulevard vision was generally accepted, regulatory and professional obstacles, car-oriented policy, and weak coordination between land-use and transport planning hindered implementation.[17]

A 2004 photograph captioned “Yom Kippur on Highway 20 (Netivey Ayalon), Tel-Aviv - Ramat-Gan” records the road as a setting for bicycle travel on the holiday.[18] A 2022 report described the highway as emblematic of a historical preference for private-car infrastructure, while noting criticism that widening roads can prompt additional car use and renewed congestion. Plans reported at the time included a bus lane reserving the left lane in each direction between Wolfson and KKL interchanges, as well as park-and-ride shuttles linking Shefayim and Rishon LeZion with Tel Aviv.[14]

The Ayalon River runs through the transport corridor between the highway and a major railway line, and the road makes use of the riverbed.[19][20] The river drains rainwater from the Shephelah region and collects runoff from built-up Gush Dan, as well as from the Judean Hills and Jerusalem, on its way to the coastal plain.[1][19] The road and river works were planned together: the project combined transportation routes with river regulation, and the channel also carries rainwater away from low-lying areas.[8][20]

The original canal design specified a capacity of 560 cubic meters per second. An updated 1972 plan lowered this to 420 cubic meters per second, despite objections from an engineering committee and later reviews warning that the revised capacity was too low for possible flows. Project promoters cited economic reasons for the reduction, and the company’s board chose in 1975 to retain the reduced design and route.[2][21]

The 1993 audit states that project routes opened in 1979 without the required electronic flood-warning system, while later accounts identify April 1982 as the opening of the first highway section; the descriptions may concern different components of the project.[2][9] The audit says the project’s main regulation sections were completed in 1983. In winter 1991–92, flows of at least 300 cubic meters per second passed through the canal twice, and flooding closed the routes for periods of 8–24 hours on three occasions.[2] During the first flood, about 140 vehicles were trapped and several dozen were flooded.[2][21] By May 1992, the State Comptroller found that important conditions, including canal maintenance and regulation of the lower Yarkon, remained unmet.[2]

The 1992 rains also affected areas beyond the roadway. A National Library of Israel photograph record dated January 2 describes evacuated shanty houses in south Tel Aviv after the Ayalon and Yarkon rivers burst their banks; the record does not say whether the highway itself was among roads closed during the flooding.[22] Later reports describe the highway as having been completely flooded in 1991, 1992, 2013, and 2018.[19] In January 2013, authorities closed a four-kilometer section between La Guardia and Rokach for six hours as flooding disrupted the corridor.[21]

Flood mitigation remains linked to railway capacity and construction. A fourth railway track was planned through the corridor, where the river channel would be further narrowed. A proposed reservoir at Ariel Sharon Park was intended to hold more than six million cubic meters of water, with a drainage conduit planned to carry excess water to the sea.[6][19] The assessments reported for the scheme differed: an infrastructure official said it could improve the expected flood interval to an average of once every 35 years, while a water-resources expert argued that the reservoir alone would not meaningfully reduce flooding frequency before the sea conduit was completed.[19]

In 2004, the Knesset Research and Information Center documented government approval of a proposal to extend Highway 20 from Kfar Shmaryahu to Hadera. The stated aim was to ease congestion on Highway 2 and the old Tel Aviv–Haifa road, Highway 4; the route was being reconsidered at the Prime Minister’s request to reduce harm to agricultural land and natural sites, and further planning approvals remained outstanding.[4] The report records a proposal and planning process, not proof that the extension was built.

The proposal drew objections from environmental officials and organizations over possible effects on open agricultural land, natural values, nearby communities, and protected landscapes. The Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel argued that the route could affect the Nahal Poleg basin and divide the Alexander Stream National Park–Sharon Park area. The report also records the Society’s account that a 1997 planning decision called for renewed consideration of the road’s necessity, and that a district committee in 2001 directed planners to examine upgrading Highway 2 as an alternative.[4]

Accounts differ on the highway’s length and on which section should be treated as its first opening. A 2022 Ynet report gives a length of 34 kilometers from Rishon LeZion to Shefayim and identifies the first section as opening in 1982 between Hashalom and Halakha. A 2013 Globes account describes a roughly 30-kilometer Ayalon route, says that two separate roads together total 60 kilometers, and identifies a four-kilometer stretch between La Guardia and Rokach as having opened in 1988. The sources do not reconcile these descriptions, which may refer to different route measures or sections.[14][21]

Flood-control performance has also been disputed. A 2013 account of the State Comptroller’s audit reported that the routes as built would flood on average every 15 years, despite a design intended to withstand all but a once-in-50-years flood; it described the constructed channel capacity as 300 cubic meters per second, compared with an initially approved capacity of 560 and later works raising it to 420.[21] Other reports have presented differing recurrence estimates and competing assessments of the proposed reservoir and drainage conduit, rather than a single settled projection.[19][2]

The highway is named for the Ayalon River, much of which was covered by the road. In 2016, a proposal to name the highway after Shimon Peres was under consideration; it was not reported as an adopted renaming.[23]