The Carmel Tunnel, a new traffic route and the longest of its kind in Israel, will open under strict eco-friendly standards next month in Haifa, Israel’s chief port and third-largest city. The 3.5-mile route is built atop a former landfill and connects Haifa’s eastern and western districts, redirecting drivers from downtown to an alternative route to the eastern and central parts of the city and Haifa Bay. The new tunnel prevents the extensive environmental impact that the construction of an overland road would have caused. The tunnel project also includes the replacement of local soil, natural shrubbery and the native white lilies on the slopes surrounding the Rupin interchange, one of the largest thruways in Israel. “A tall garbage mountain used to stand here and we had to get rid of it,” says Margalit Suchoy, landscape architect for the project. “Within 10 years, a natural, self-rehabilitating forest will have grown around the giant interchange. We will give it the first push by planting and watering, and nature will do the rest.”
For more information on green travel to Israel, visit www.goisrael.com/green. For more information on travel to Israel, visit www.goisrael.com.
