After decades of neglect during which residents of Beit Shemesh and the surrounding area suffered from the deplorable condition of Highway 38, the Beit Shemesh Municipality issued an announcement this evening (Sunday) about the start of work to upgrade Highway 38.
Work to improve the road is expected to begin in the coming weeks. Ahead of the start of work on the road, a first working meeting was held this week in the office of Mayor Moshe Aboutbul with contractor Dayan Barzani and his team of engineers. Also present at the meeting on behalf of the municipality were Deputy Mayor and Chairman of the Traffic Committee Shmuel Greenberg, and the municipality's CEO, Attorney Mati Hota.
At the meeting, several issues were raised to adapt the road's purpose to the needs of the residents, and it was agreed that the municipality would make the improvements it requires, but that these would not delay the start of the work. According to the plan, in about a month, the relocation of the infrastructure is expected to begin. Immediately after that, the actual upgrade will begin.
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It should be noted that, in preparation for the approval of the 2014 budget, the budget for upgrading the road was almost canceled, but after a media battle and much pressure, only some of the original plans for upgrading the road were cut.
The project is expected to last for about three and a half years, according to a pre-determined schedule. The mayor notes that the necessary adjustments have been made so that the work on the ground will not affect the public traveling on Highway 38. The route of the road in this section will not run in its current format, but in the direction of Kibbutz Tzora, and the public will be able to continue traveling on the current Highway 38, and exit and enter the city through the new entrance - Highway 10 until it connects to the new route.
Deputy Mayor and Chairman of the Traffic Committee Shmuel Greenberg presented the winning contractor with a proposal to involve subcontractors who would work simultaneously on upgrading the section, similar to what is being done in the sections of work on Highway 1 between Sha'ar Hagai and the entrance to Jerusalem. This will shorten the work time even further than the original planned schedule, and the work will be completed quickly to the satisfaction of the residents, who are already eagerly awaiting it. According to him, there is double the importance of the urgency with which this must be done and carried out, since it is also about saving lives, since this road has already claimed the lives of several people.
