Highway 4 (Israel)


Highway 4 is an Israeli highway that runs along Israel's entire coastal plain of the Mediterranean Sea, from the Rosh HaNikra border crossing with Lebanon in the North to the Erez Border Crossing with the Gaza Strip in the South. The highway follows in part the route of the ancient Via Maris.
Until the 1990s and the withdrawal of Israel Defense Forces from most of the Gaza Strip due to the Oslo Accords, Highway 4 continued all the way until Rafah and the Egyptian border. The part of the remaining highway in the Gaza Strip is called Salah al-Din Road.
Although the highway is continuous, it is generally considered to be divided into five sections, each with its own nickname and characteristics such as a differing number of lanes and speed limits:
The Tel Aviv–Ashdod and Geha sections are freeways. The rest of the highway consists of multiple lanes in each direction except between Erez Crossing and Yad Mordechai, Rosh HaNikra and Nahariya, and between Tirat Carmel just south of Haifa and Fureidis, which have a single lane of traffic in each direction. While there have been multiple proposals to widen the Haifa-Fureidis section, these have so far been blocked due to opposition from nearby residents who would like the highway in the area to retain its current rural character.

Current and planned construction

As of 2016, Netivei Yisrael is planning a multi-billion Shekel project to convert the Sharon section of the highway to a freeway. The project includes a massive interchange at the junction with Highway 57 and a long cut-and-cover tunnel with a road and intersections above it at the entrance to Hadera to separate local and intercity traffic.

Junctions and interchanges