As part of the upgrading of the Arava Road (Route 90), one of the only two roads connecting Eilat with the rest of the country, the existing traffic lanes (one in each direction) will be broadened, safety arrangements added, and intermittent passing lanes built. 

(Photo courtesy of Ronit Zilberstein) 

 The National Roads Company ("Ma'atz") publicised a tender during the last week of August for upgrading of the section of the Arava Road between the new entrance roadblock to Eilat (Km 18) that will be moved and upgraded, to the Timna Mines junction (Km 36), at an overall investment of around 177 million shekels.

The upgrading of the section of road will be done in two stages.  The first stage will be from the Eilat entrance roadblock to the Be’er Ora junction, a stretch of 11.5 km, at a cost of around 122 million shekels.  The second stage, to be carried out subject to the company’s budget approved for 2009, will be to upgrade the 6.5 km stretch of road between the Be’er Ora junction and the Timna Mines junction, at a cost of about 55 million shekels.  

There are seasons of the year, including the summer and particularly August, as well as Passover, when people can be trapped for as much as an hour in standstill traffic waiting to get into Eilat.  Bad enough for a tourist who doesn’t want to waste his holiday on traffic jams, but far, far worse for Eilatis  or kibbutzniks for whom it routinely adds an hour of misery to a long workday already lengthened by the commute.  Especially if their car has no air conditioning or the AC has broken down.  To add insult to injury, the law-abiding drivers waiting in the queue then get treated to seeing all the outlaws driving along the shoulder and pushing in at the head of the queue, making their wait even longer.  Let us hope that the renovations of the road will include, amongst other things, a solution or at least an easement of this problem.