Highway 50 (formerly Route 404), officially called Begin Boulevard (
Hebrew: שדרות בגין, Sderot Begin) and also referred to as Menachem Begin Expressway or Begin Highway, is a north-south urban
freeway, through western
Jerusalem, named after Israel's sixth
Prime Minister,
Menachem Begin. Local Jerusalemites simply refer to it as 'Begin' (Hebrew pronunciation:[ˈbegin]). It enters
Area C of the West Bank on the north end and
East Jerusalem on both ends.
Route
The road follows a south-north path that connects key neighbourhoods and commercial areas, as well as several city arteries and national routes. Beginning at the Rosmarin Interchange (formerly the Tunnels Junction) of the Gush Road in Gilo, the road arcs north-westward through Gilo, Beit Safafa, and Sharafat turning northward through Malha. Passing Golomb Blvd, the road travels below a high ridge to the west on which sits the
Holyland Park building complex. To the east is Emek Hatzva'im (
Gazelle Valley), a green zone that was previously leased to
Kiryat Anavim and
Ma'ale HaHamisha and used for agricultural purposes.[1] Further on, the path was excavated to create a depressed roadway between
Bayit Vegan,
Givat Mordechai,
Ramat Beit HaKerem and
Givat Ram. This section is equipped with
noise barriers and
speed cameras.[2]
The road then passes through two tunnels under
Jaffa Road and the busy western entrance to Jerusalem. Winding down the western and northern slopes below
Romema, the road steeply descends 150 meters into Emek HaArazim (Valley of Cedars) with interchanges at Golda Meir Blvd (
Route 436) and Yigal Yadin Blvd (
Highway 1). Passing between
Ramot and
Ramat Shlomo, the road continues through the
West Bank passing
Beit Hanina,
Bir Nabala and
Atarot. Finally at Atarot Junction, Highway 50 officially becomes
Highway 45 providing a continuous connection to
Route 443 to
Modi'in and the
Tel Aviv area.
History
Begin Boulevard is made of the central section, which was completed two years ahead of schedule in June 1998,[3] and the northern extension completed in late 2002[4]
Since its construction, the road has been called national Route 404.[5] In internal Jerusalem Municipality documentation, it was known as Jerusalem Road 4. In 2012, the
Israel Ministry of Transport and the Jerusalem Municipality began using the designation 50.[6][7] New blue "Highway 50" signs were posted by the
National Roads Company of Israel to reflect this change.[8][9][10] The
Moriah-Jerusalem Development Corporation, responsible for road construction in Jerusalem also uses the designation, 50.
50/20
In the north, the "50/20 Interchange Project" was approved in 2010 along with the new
Jerusalem Road 20 through
Beit Hanina following Abdul Hamid Shomaan St. and Hizma Rd. to Sayeret Duchifat Blvd. Construction was begun in 2011. This route alleviates heavy traffic at Sha'ar Mizrach Junction (
Highway 1 and
Route 60) by providing an alternative route via Begin to central Jerusalem and
Route 443 to
Tel Aviv for residents of Beit Hanina, Shuafat, Pisgat Ze'ev and Neve Ya'akov.[11][12] The preliminarily named "50/20 Interchange" was officially opened on 5 May 2013 and renamed after
Benzion Netanyahu, the Israeli historian and father of
Benjamin Netanyahu.[13]
Begin South
The "Begin South Project", first planned in 1990, involved widening Begin Boulevard from 4 to 6 lanes and extending it as a
freeway past Golomb Boulevard to connect with
Route 60 at the Tunnels Road in
Gilo to
Gush Etzion.[14][15][16][17][18] Construction proceeded in stages beginning in 2010 to widen the highway between Givat Mordechai Interchange and Golomb Junction. At the same time, reconstruction of sewer lines further south was completed to accommodate the lowering of the highway to pass under Golomb Boulevard and local streets next to the
Malha Mall,
Teddy Stadium and the
Jerusalem Malha Railway Station with interchange access to these locations. In 2013, a tunnel was built creating the new Golomb Interchange, and work proceeded to lower the road past the
Malha Mall and
Teddy Stadium with
service roads on either side. This first stage was completed at the end of 2014.
Further south, past the
Malha Railway Station, work continued through the neighbourhood of
Sharafat with the completion of the second stage and the opening of the Dov Yosef Interchange in March 2015.
The final stage of the project between Dov Yosef Boulevard and Rosmarin Street through the neighbourhood of
Beit Safafa went ahead despite the residents' objections and requests for a tunnel. The highway was built as a slightly depressed roadway with a 200-meter-wide, park-covered bridge at al-Qa'ash St. connecting the southwest corner of the neighbourhood with its center.[12][19][20] Ongoing litigation between the residents and the municipality regarding the proximity of the highway to houses and the desire for additional crossing points continued during the construction process.[21] Construction of ramps to Rosmarin Street were completed in the spring of 2016,[22] while the underpass of Rosmarin Interchange connecting Highway 50 with Highway 60 southward was completed in September 2017.[23][24] The total cost for the project was 1.1 B Shekels.[6][25]
Future
In the center, a plan has been published to connect Begin Boulevard at Givat Mordechai Interchange to Highway 1 at the new Motza Interchange via the new
Jerusalem Road 16. The road would travel mostly through a series of tunnels under the parking lots of
Shaare Zedek Medical Center and the west Jerusalem neighbourhoods of
Yefeh Nof and
Har Nof. In the center, the above-ground Nahal Revida Interchange would lead to Givat Shaul. This would create another entrance to Jerusalem to ease the traffic congestion at the Ben Gurion Blvd./Jaffa Road entrance and provide direct access to south Jerusalem from the west.[26] Expected to be completed by 2018, the plan still has to pass stiff resistance on ecological grounds due to the above-ground section at Nahal Revida located in the
Jerusalem Forest.[27]