Highway 70 (Israel)

Highway 70 runs from Hanita Junction in the north — where it meets Highway 899 — southward to the Zikhron Ya'akov Interchange, where it terminates at Highway 2.[1] Along this corridor it passes through a sequence of significant intersections. Ahihud Junction connects it with Highway 85, while Somakh Interchange links it with Highway 79. HaAmakim Junction marks the meeting point with Highway 75, and Yagur Interchange serves as the confluence of Highways 70, 75, and 752.[1]

The highway also passes near Zichron Ya'acov, a town situated off Route 652, between Highway 70 and Route 4; a 2000 description estimated travel times from the town at about half an hour to Haifa and fifteen minutes to Caesarea.[2] The southern segment, between Furaydis Junction and Yokne'am Junction, is known as the Wadi Milik road. Here, the highway crosses the Carmel ridge using the favorable topography of Nahal Tut. The name "Milik" is understood to be a corruption of the Arabic word for salt, preserving the memory of trading caravans that formerly carried salt along this passage.[1]

A private-finance road-maintenance project covering the Hadera region was launched in June 2010 and included two noncontiguous segments of Highway 70: from Yagur Junction to Somakh Junction, and from Zikhron Ya'akov Junction to Tashbi Junction.[3] Under the arrangement, the concessionaire was responsible for an initial rehabilitation and maintenance phase of three years, followed by a further seventeen-year maintenance obligation running through 2030.[3]

A major infrastructure plan for the shared Highway 70/75 section between HaAmakim Interchange and Yagur Interchange proposed widening the road to three lanes in each direction and constructing a new interchange southeast of Kibbutz Yagur. Planning guidelines were approved in 2017, the environmental impact statement was submitted on 26 December 2019, and supplements were submitted on 10 June 2020.[4] The district planning process required that every examined alternative include an ecological crossing in the open stretch between Yagur and Jalame, with a preference for placement immediately south of Yagur.[4]

Four principal alternatives were studied. Alternative 0 would widen the road without a new interchange and place an elevated ecological crossing immediately south of Yagur. Alternatives 1 and 2 would add a full interchange — in cloverleaf and diamond configurations, respectively — south of Yagur. Alternative 4 would install a partial diamond interchange southeast of the ecological crossing, with northern access through the new interchange and southern access through the existing HaAmakim Interchange.[4]

The Ministry of Environmental Protection, in its opinion dated 25 December 2024, rejected the environmental impact statement's preference for Alternative 2A, instead favoring Alternative 0 followed by Alternative 4. The Ministry noted that the environmental impact statement itself found no traffic justification for constructing a new interchange, given that traffic volumes on the relevant route were expected to remain low and that existing destinations could be accessed via an existing road.[4]

Habitat fragmentation is identified as a central environmental concern associated with the widening project. The review identifies Highway 6 and its interchanges, the Jezreel Valley Railway, and the planned expansion of Highway 70/75 as barriers that block or severely limit animal movement between the Carmel, the Alonim Hills, and the Galilee.[4] The proposed elevated ecological crossing is intended to restore continuity between these natural areas by spanning both the widened highway and the Jezreel Valley Railway. An underpass was ruled out because the combined road and railway alignment, together with the local topography, makes it infeasible.[4]

The Ministry of Environmental Protection determined that an effective ecological-continuity crossing must be at least 100 meters wide. The alternatives examined would yield crossings approximately 160, 240, or 320 meters in length, while the environmental impact statement had proposed a uniform width of only 70 meters — a dimension the Ministry considered insufficient for crossings of those lengths, though it allowed that the shorter crossing under Alternative 0 might permit a modest reduction from the 100-meter standard.[4]

The environmental review projected that road widening combined with future traffic growth would produce noise-level exceedances of up to approximately 2.5 dB(A) on the upper floors of eight residential buildings along the southeastern frontage of Kibbutz Yagur.[4] On air quality, the review found that regulatory maximum concentrations for nitrogen dioxide and PM2.5 would not be exceeded, though maximum hourly nitrogen-dioxide concentrations near the road and railway corridor could approach up to 90 percent of the permitted regulatory ceiling.[4]