Ministry okays paving road, cutting J’lem-TA travel time

12.07.2011                      10.Tammus, 5771

Strassenbau:

Ministry okays paving road, cutting J’lem-TA travel time

Interior Ministry c'tee: Pair of tunnels to be quarried under Har Nof, Yefe Nof neighborhoods; Green groups slam potential damage to J'lem Forest.

Amid public criticism and demonstrations outside its offices on Monday morning, an Interior Ministry committee approved plans to construct Road 16, which is slated to connect Road 1 to the Menachem Begin Highway by running through the Jerusalem Forest and underneath several city neighborhoods, the ministry announced later that day.
The Committee of National Planning and Construction of National Infrastructure, a section of the Interior Ministry’s Planning Commission headed by Ephraim Shlain, determined that two pairs of tunnels – 1,500 and 1,350 meters, respectively – would be quarried under the neighborhoods of Har Nof and Yefe Nof, meeting above ground at an intersection near the Revida Stream in the upper Jerusalem Forest, according to a statement from the ministry….