Highway 66 (Israel)

Highway 66 runs from Hatishbi Junction at Yokneam through Megiddo Junction and onward toward the Salem checkpoint at the entrance to Judea and Samaria.[1][2] Published accounts describe the full route as approximately 17 or 18 kilometers long.[1][2] It passes near communities of the Megiddo Regional Council, including HaZore'a, Mishmar HaEmek, Megiddo, and Givat Oz, before continuing toward Salem, Zububa, and Rumana.[2] A 2016 report described the road as having one lane in each direction for almost its entire length, while a 2005 report noted that only a painted white line separated opposing traffic at the site of a series of fatal crashes.[1][5]

The highway skirts the foot of Tel Megiddo, placing it along both ancient and modern transportation corridors.[2] Earlier plans envisioned it as part of a route linking Haifa and Jerusalem through Jenin, which would have shortened that journey by nearly 40 kilometers.[2] That broader regional role never fully materialized, but the road remains an important connection between the Haifa area and the Jezreel Valley.

A historical account, framed as a local legend, traces the road's origins to a 1924 arrangement associated with John D. Rockefeller Jr.'s excavations at Tel Megiddo. The Yishuv leadership reportedly authorized the excavations and offered to construct a road on condition that the excavated remains stay in the country; Rockefeller agreed and provided funding.[2] More than 200 workers, including Jewish and Arab laborers, participated in the project, and its first stage was completed in 1929.[2] In its early years, the road served the Megiddo excavation teams and residents of Mishmar HaEmek; authorization for all drivers to use it was granted in 1936.[2]

The road was subsequently neglected for roughly three decades. It was renovated and widened in 1963 in preparation for Pope Paul VI's 1964 visit to Megiddo. His visit to Israel lasted 11 hours and also included Nazareth and Jerusalem.[2] The renovation briefly revitalized the route before safety concerns again came to dominate its history.

The highway is also associated with the 2002 terrorist attack at Megiddo Junction, which targeted Egged bus route 830 and killed 17 people. A memorial connected with the attack stands near the junction.[2]

Highway 66 accumulated a grim safety record over decades. Figures from the Green Light road-safety organization cited in a 2016 report show that between 2002 and 2016, 262 road accidents on an 18-kilometer section of the highway killed 38 people, seriously injured 79, and lightly injured 826.[1] A 2005 report documented six deaths in three crashes at one location over two months, noting that only a painted white center line, without a physical barrier, separated opposing traffic there.[5]

Proposals to upgrade the road appeared repeatedly. A first-draft National Roads Company plan reported in 2009 called for the 14-kilometer section between Tishbi Junction and Megiddo Junction to become a divided highway with separation along its entire length, citing projected traffic growth and a serious safety problem.[6] A 2010 plan similarly proposed converting approximately 15 kilometers of the corridor into a dual-carriageway road.[7] The reports described planned or proposed work rather than a completed project.

The 2016 report outlined two stages of immediate safety work: physical separation between opposing traffic flows, followed by safer entrances and exits for nearby communities, including acceleration and deceleration lanes and nighttime lighting.[1] The Megiddo Regional Council's engineer estimated that work on the order of 100 million shekels was needed. Netivei Israel had begun installing a median barrier after a series of fatal crashes.[1]

A later and more extensive infrastructure project covered the 15-kilometer section between Megiddo Junction and Hatishbi Junction at Yokneam.[3] The Transport Ministry was reported to be investing 1.5 billion shekels in the project, carried out by Netivei Israel, with the goals of expanding the road, reducing congestion, and improving safety. The project also incorporated construction of the Megiddo Interchange at the junction of Roads 65 and 66.[3]

The Highway 66 expansion project enabled deep archaeological excavation at the foot of Tel Megiddo, near the ancient village of Kfar Othnay, known in Greek as Capercotnai.[3] Directed by Dr. Yotam Tepper and Barak Tzin and funded by Netivei Israel, the excavation exposed substantial remains of Legio, a permanent Roman military base. Reports describe it as the only Roman military camp in Israel of its size and scope whose location has been identified and exposed through archaeological excavation.[3][4]

The camp measured approximately 550 meters by 350 meters and housed more than 5,000 soldiers of Legio VI Ferrata, the Sixth Iron Legion.[3] Two main roads intersected at the center of the base, where its headquarters stood. This central point served as a reference from which distances along Roman roads to major northern cities were measured and marked on milestones.[3] The road-project excavation investigated remains extending northeast alongside Highway 66, while the camp's principia, or headquarters, had previously been exposed southwest of the road.[4]

The excavation uncovered the camp's main road, a semicircular or sigma-shaped podium, and stone-paved areas belonging to a large monumental public building.[3][4] Finds included coins, weapon fragments, pottery sherds, glass fragments, and large quantities of roof tiles, some stamped with the insignia of the Sixth Legion.[3][4] Ground-penetrating-radar surveys indicated that the entire Roman base and its components lie beneath the wheat fields of Kibbutz Megiddo.[3]

The base functioned as a permanent military installation for more than 180 years and remained in use until around 300 CE.[3][4] Its exposure created a conservation challenge because earlier road-expansion plans would have passed over part of the legionary site. Authorities and archaeologists were evaluating how to continue the roadwork while preserving the remains, with one possibility being an expansion of Megiddo National Park to include parts of the base.[3][8]

On March 13, 2023, a major roadside explosive device detonated near Megiddo Junction, where Roads 65 and 66 meet.[9][3] The explosion struck a passing car, seriously injured its 21-year-old driver from Salem, and completely destroyed the vehicle.[9] The incident report did not identify the road by number; it quoted the organization claiming responsibility as referring to the location as the Afula Road.[9]