Route 505 (Israel–Palestine) Explained

Country:ISR
Type:Route
Route:505
Length Km:56.5
Direction A:West
Terminus A:Samaria Gate Interchange
Direction B:East
Terminus B:Petza'el Junction
Previous Route:491
Previous Type:Route
Next Route:508
Next Type:Route

Route 505 is a regional Israeli highway in the West Bank.

History

Until the 1990s, only Route 505 was considered the "Trans-Samaria Highway". Highway 5, which hadn't yet been upgraded to a highway, was a narrow, curved two-lane road that reached the Kassem junction and continued as a minimal two-lane road for to the entrance to Kfar Kassem. At this point, the road (today's Highway 5) connected to the old Route 505, which crossed Kfar Kassem.

An early improvement was to extend and pave Route 5 along an additional as a bypass road, which ended where the Sha'ar Shomron Interchange exists now. Eastward beyond that, the Trans-Samaria Highway was only Route 505. During the late 1990s and during the 2000s the National Roads Company of Israel continued to develop Route 5 as a two-lane highway in a new route south of Route 505 instead of upgrading the 505 route so that the two highways were parallel for a distance of about . Since November 2008, route 5 has ended at the Ariel junction, where it connects with Route 505 which continues as the "Trans-Samaria Highway" to the intersection with Highway 90 in the Petza'el intersection in the Jordan Valley.

In 2010 Minister of Transportation Yisrael Katz ordered the planning for the route to connect the Gush Dan region with the Jordan Valley.[1]

See also

Notes and References

  1. News: Chaim Levinson . 4 May 2010 . he:שר התחבורה ישראל כץ: משרד התחבורה מקדם הקמת רשת רכבות ביו"ש . he . Transport Minister Israel Katz: Department of Transportation promotes the establishment of a railway network in the West Bank . . http://www.haaretz.co.il/news/politics/1.1200424 . 13 August 2014.