Junctions and Interchanges in Israel

Israel's road network extends for more than 16,115 kilometers, encompassing urban, access, and non-urban roads.[1] In the period described by the cited transportation overview, the network carried more than 1.8 million motor vehicles, with an average density of approximately 105 cars per kilometer.[1] The country's compact geography and concentrated traffic make junctions and interchanges important elements of transportation planning.

One land-use comparison gives the Qessem Interchange (מחלף קסם) a footprint of approximately 30,000 square meters, compared with roughly 70 square meters for a rail interchange.[4] The same comparison states that an intercity railway line is approximately 9 meters wide, while a divided highway ranges from 30 to 40 meters wide.[5] These figures illustrate the different land requirements associated with road and rail infrastructure.

The Central Bureau of Statistics defines a road section as a portion of road delineated by two junctions, or by a junction and the point where the road becomes urban.[6] Traffic data on non-urban roads are collected using mechanical counters, with counts conducted once annually for one week; the reported daily traffic volume is calculated from that year's counts.[6] The resulting tables provide standardized traffic and accident figures for selected road sections.

Several Israeli junctions are documented in archival and historical accounts associated with earlier road alignments. Beit Dagan Junction marks the meeting point of the Tel Aviv–Jerusalem road and the Or Yehuda–Rishon LeZion road; the Beit Dagan Police Station stood south of the junction, and the Jewish National Fund House lay to its northeast.[7]

Mesmiya Junction, also known as Ram Junction (מחלף רם), is where Route 40, described as the Gedera–Kastina road, meets Route 3, which runs eastward toward Nakhshon and Jerusalem.[8] An archival description places Ram Junction at the northwest corner of the village shown in its historical image, with the village east of Route 40 and a westward road alongside Nahal Ha-Rif connecting the Masmiya area with villages farther west.[8]

A separate archival description associates the modern Plugot Junction area with the former town of Faluja on the Ashkelon–Beit Jibrin road and identifies another road running south toward Beersheba.[9] This association is a source-specific historical-geographic identification rather than a comprehensive reconstruction of the area's road network.

The road to Jerusalem has been shaped by its junctions since the 1948 War of Independence. Latrun lies along this road near the junction to the main artery south; from 1948 to 1967, Israeli forces could not control the road at Latrun, and a detour was built around the Arab Legion position.[10] The area remained no-man's land under United Nations supervision until Israel retook it in 1967.[10] The Nachshon and Shimshon junctions also mark this historic corridor: a road connecting the two opened in December 1948, after the Burma Road had provided relief to besieged Jerusalem for nearly five months.[10]

The Israeli Ministry of Transport's signage-committee procedure sets out formal criteria for which intersections receive official names and signs.[3] Signed locations include interchanges on the interurban road network, excluding small interchange facilities; small interchanges and junctions where at least one intersecting road is classified as a regional road or higher; and junctions on four-digit-numbered roads that serve at least four settlements.[3]

The Government Names Committee holds exclusive authority to determine junction and interchange names.[3] A junction's name remains valid if the intersection is later upgraded from a junction to a full interchange, so the upgrade does not require a new naming application.[3] Access junctions situated within larger interchange complexes do not receive independent names of their own.[3] These provisions maintain naming continuity as at-grade junctions are converted into grade-separated interchanges.

Junctions and interchanges function not only as traffic facilities but also as statistical boundaries, regulated place names, and historical reference points. Central Bureau of Statistics tables list selected road sections bounded by named interchanges and junctions and record traffic volumes and accident counts for those sections.[6] The tables are a selected-road dataset rather than an exhaustive national gazetteer.

The National Library of Israel holds archival descriptions connecting present-day junctions with earlier roads, buildings, settlements, and landscapes.[7][8] Its catalog also records a 2000 English-language road atlas titled Israel, the New Road Atlas, a 96-page atlas at a scale of 1:100,000 containing detailed road maps, city plans, a Sinai road map, tourist information, and an index.[11]

The Ministry of Transport's signage procedure supplies the administrative framework for naming and signing intersections, including the process for submitting names and retaining them after infrastructure upgrades.[3] Together, statistical tables, archival records, maps, and naming procedures document different aspects of the network without constituting a single comprehensive inventory.

Road 6, also called the Cross-Israel Highway or Trans-Israel Highway, has been a major focus of interchange construction. The highway was planned to extend approximately 300 kilometers from Israel's northern border to the Negev, with construction beginning in 1992.[1] Its first phase was a 90-kilometer toll road running parallel to the greater Tel Aviv metropolitan area, with a second phase adding 48 kilometers north and south.[1]

As of December 2016, Road 6 ran from the Ein Tut Interchange in the north through 18 interchanges to the Shoket West Interchange in the Negev, a 175-kilometer route.[12] The section south of the Sorek Interchange was described as toll-free, while the northern and central sections operated as toll roads.[12] The Shoket Interchange provides access to Road 60 south of Beersheva. At that time, the next planned 13-kilometer section was to run from Shoket Interchange to Nevatim Interchange, with a longer-term extension planned to Hanegev Junction.[12]

The Beit Kama Interchange on Road 6 replaced the heavily congested traffic light at Beit Kama Junction on Road 40, forming part of a 30-kilometer Road 6 section being built between Beit Kama and Shoket Junction in the Negev.[13] A related section included the Rahat Interchange, linking Roads 40 and 31.[13] The Bakr Interchange is an enlarged interchange on Road 6 connecting to Road 9; the newly opened Road 9 section allowed travel from Road 4 south of Hadera eastward to the Bakr Interchange.[14]

Farther north, the Ha'Emekim and Somekh interchanges sit on a 16-kilometer northern section of Road 6 near Kiryat Ata in Haifa Bay.[15] This section also includes the 2.5-kilometer Rechesim Tunnel, described in the 2019 report as the longest tunnel on Road 6.[15] The Yokneam tunnel section begins at Yokneam Junction and ends at Tel Kashish Interchange, located between Hatishbi Junction and HaAmakim Junction; the tunnel is 1.7 kilometers long.[16]

A plan approved for deposit in September 2026 calls for the Alexander Interchange to be built at the junction of Roads 6, 444, and 553 in the Sharon region. The associated plan would widen and extend Road 553 into a divided road with two lanes in each direction.[17]

Road 2, the Coastal Highway, is a major artery and has been the site of numerous interchange projects. Among four road-construction tenders examined in one study, Chinese companies competed in two and won one: the tender for construction of the Olga Interchange (מחלף אולגה) on Route 2.[18] Route 2 sections documented in Central Bureau of Statistics traffic data include Yannay–Olga, Caesarea–Zikhron Ya'akov, Zikhron Ya'akov–Atlit, and Atlit–Haifa South.[6]

The Shefayim Interchange links Road 20, the Ayalon Highway, with Road 2 north of Herzliya, enabling northbound traffic to travel from Tel Aviv directly onto the Coastal Highway.[19] North of Shefayim, the Ga'ash-Rishpon Interchange allows southbound Road 2 traffic heading from Netanya toward Tel Aviv to enter Road 20.[20] The Kfar Shmariyahu East Interchange enables southbound traffic to enter Road 531, the Cross-Sharon Highway, which connects Road 6 in the east with Roads 20 and 2 in the west.[20]

In September 2026, the Tel Aviv District Planning Administration approved a new Road 2 interchange intended to link Herzliya with Ramat Hasharon and relieve congestion at the Hasira Interchange to the north.[21] The Rosh Ha'ayin Interchange opened on Road 5, the highway between Herzliya and northern Tel Aviv and Ariel, providing access to the new Givot Mizrachiot neighborhood of Rosh Ha'ayin.[22]

Route 1, the main Jerusalem–Tel Aviv highway, is similarly marked by a sequence of named interchanges. Central Bureau of Statistics data record sections including Ben Shemen–Anava, Anava–Latrun, Latrun–Sha'ar HaGay, and Sha'ar HaGay–Shoresh.[6] The Sha'ar Hagai intersection on Route 1 also serves as the southern terminus of the final tunnel section of the high-speed rail line to Jerusalem, a section approximately nine miles long running toward the Mevasseret Zion area.[23]

In the Jerusalem area, the Rosmarin Interchange in the Gilo neighborhood marked the completion of Begin Highway, Road 50.[24] It allows drivers entering from the north via Road 443 to travel approximately 16 kilometers south without traffic lights, continuing onto Road 60 and the Tunnels Highway toward Gush Etzion.[24] Near Beit Shemesh, the Shimshon Interchange replaced traffic lights at the junction of Roads 38 and 44. Road 38 connects Beit Shemesh with the Jerusalem–Tel Aviv highway at Sha'ar Hagai, while Road 44 runs west toward Ramla and Tel Aviv.[25] The interchange formed part of an upgrade of a 6.5-kilometer Road 38 segment planned with two lanes in each direction.[25] Shimshon Junction had been a major milestone on the Tel Aviv–Jerusalem road before 1967, declined after traffic could use the Latrun route, and became congested again as Beit Shemesh expanded.[25]

The Galilee has been the focus of sustained interchange construction along key east–west and north–south corridors. The Golani Interchange sits north of Afula and west of Tiberias, at the junction of Roads 65 and 77.[26] Before it was built, Golani Junction was where Road 65, between Afula and Rosh Pina, met Road 77, between Yokne'am and Tiberias. Drivers faced an average one-minute wait for the left turn from Road 77 northbound to Road 65, with waits ranging from 45 to 75 seconds.[27] The completed interchange was presented as a gateway to the Upper Galilee and as part of a NIS 27.5 billion project intended to connect Kiryat Shmona with Road 6 and central Israel; it was described as the first of seven interchanges being built along Road 77.[26]

Four additional interchanges planned for Road 77, named Tur'an, Beit Rimon, Tziporit, and Hosh'aya, are located between the Golani and HaMovil interchanges and were intended to replace signalized intersections.[28] A fifth planned interchange at Ramat Yishai would also replace a signalized intersection on Road 77.[28] The total construction estimate for the four named Road 77 interchanges was NIS 360 million, and the project was described as improving access to communities, enterprises, and IDF bases.[28] Its stated objective was continuous travel along a dual-carriageway Road 77 with two lanes in each direction, together with safer connections to nearby communities and facilities.[28]

The Tzalmon Interchange replaced two earlier junctions at its site and provided high-speed entrances to and exits from Highway 807.[29] Its associated infrastructure included a four-kilometer interchange and elevated section with a 150-meter bridge over Highway 65 and a planned 90-meter bridge toward Maghar and Migdal over Highway 907.[29] The project was connected with road improvements between the Golani Interchange and Mitzpe Netofa, between Masad and Tzalmon on Highway 65, and between Amiad Junction and the Nahal Amud Interchange on Highway 85.[29]

The Eilabun Interchange opened on Highway 65, the route connecting the coastal plain with the Galilee, replacing the intersection at the entrance to Eilabun and providing access to Highway 806 and surrounding communities.[30] The interchange consists of two roundabouts and a 54-meter bridge.[30] An associated 2.5-kilometer section between Eilabun Interchange and Massad-Ravid Interchange was built with two lanes in each direction.[30] The broader Highway 65/85 project widened 27.5 kilometers of road to four lanes between Golani Interchange and Amiad Junction and planned eight new interchanges to improve safety and access to communities across the region.[30]

South of the Tel Aviv metropolitan area, Routes 4 and 40 form major north–south corridors containing numerous documented junctions and interchanges. Central Bureau of Statistics data list Route 4 locations including the Gaza-area Checkpoint, Mordechai Junction, Ashkelon Junction, Eshkolot Junction, the southern Ashdod entrance, Ra'anana North Junction, Deror Junction, HaSharon Junction, HaRo'e Junction, Haroshet Junction, Nahal Hadera Junction, Ein HaMifratz Junction, and East Akko Junction.[6]

Route 40 locations recorded by the same source include Gorel Junction, Lehavim Junction, Pelugot Junction, Mal'akhi Junction, Bilu Junction, Ramla South Interchange, Lod Interchange, the Ben Gurion Airport entrance, Segula Junction, and Yarkon Interchange.[6] A Road 41 upgrade plan identified Kannot Junction near Gedera and Bnei Darom Junction at the eastern entrance to Ashdod; the plan called for new interchanges to replace junctions at Bet Rabban and Kannot, as well as a new interchange on Road 40 south of Gedera at Hefetz Haim.[31]

The Carmel Tunnel, while primarily a tunnel rather than an interchange, forms part of the broader road-infrastructure context. The cited transportation overview describes it as a 16-kilometer underground road beneath Haifa's city center, linking the northern and southern sides of the city, and planned as a build-operate-transfer project to alleviate central Haifa congestion.[1]

The Jordan Valley corridor is anchored by Route 90, the main north–south road crossing Jericho, which intersects the road to Yitav at Auja Junction.[32] Nahal Elisha Junction is located on the road from Jericho to the Mousa Allami project.[32] Both junctions were identified in the Gaza–Jericho Agreement's Annex I as locations for Joint Mobile Units in the Jericho Area.[32]

In the Gaza Strip, the same agreement specified that overpasses would be constructed at intersections between lateral roads and the central north–south road, designated Road 4.[32] Four Gaza junctions designated for Joint Mobile Units were named in the agreement: Nissanit, Netzarim, Deir el-Ballah, and Sufa-Morag.[32] Additional Central Bureau of Statistics data list locations farther north in the Jordan Valley corridor, including Qetura Junction, HaArava Junction, Sdei Trumot Junction, Tirat Zevi Junction, the southern entrance to Bet She'an, She'an Junction, Kinneret Junction, Tiberias Junction, Rosh Pinna Junction, Mahanayim Junction, and HaMezudot Junction, as well as Metula at the northern border.[6]

The Gaza and Jericho junctions are documented here in the specific context of the 1994 Gaza–Jericho Agreement. That source records the security arrangements in force at the time rather than establishing the junctions' present operational status.[32]

The greater Tel Aviv metropolitan area contains numerous interchanges associated with traffic entering and crossing the country's principal urban region. A 2017 report concerning approximately 540 junctions nationwide cited the Bar-Ilan Interchange, Golani Junction, Lehavim Junction, and Harel Tunnels as examples among the 180 interurban junctions then monitored continuously by cameras.[2]

The Kfar Saba–Ra'anana junction and interchange area has been treated as an urban employment-area renewal zone.[10] Planning experts presented its renewal alongside that of Kiryat Aryeh in Petah Tikva as a case study in how the choice of planning instrument shapes the renewal process.[10] A process initially intended to be completed quickly through a policy document ultimately required lengthy study and public-comment procedures, taking a period comparable to the preparation of a statutory master plan.[33]

Central Bureau of Statistics data also document central-region nodes including Kfar Sava Junction, Ra'anana Junction, Ma'asiyaou Junction, Ramla North Junction, Zerifin Junction, Bet Dagan Junction, Mavo Ayalon Interchange, Kiryat Rishon Interchange, Rishonim Interchange, Ness Ziona Interchange, and the Anava Interchange–Modi'in-Maccabim entrance section.[6]

The Golani Interchange was criticized before construction. Officials at the Ministry of Finance and the Israel National Roads Company questioned its cost-benefit ratio, arguing that traffic studies showed no serious pressure at the junction and characterizing the NIS 350 million project as politically motivated and premature compared with proposed interchanges at Morasha, Bnei Dror, Lahavim, Re'em, and Kiryat Malakhi.[27]

The junctions named in the Gaza–Jericho Agreement were elements of the agreement's 1994 security arrangements and should not be treated as a current infrastructure inventory.[32] The road at Latrun similarly illustrates the relationship between transport and political control: the junction area was no-man's land from 1948 to 1967, when the main road remained outside Israeli control.[10]

The association of Plugot Junction with the former town of Faluja rests on a specific archival description and is therefore presented as a source-specific historical-geographic identification.[9] More broadly, the available sources document selected junctions and interchanges rather than a definitive nationwide gazetteer. The figure of 540 junctions comes from a report published on April 9, 2017, and is not presented as a current official inventory.[2]