Tel Aviv-Yafo’s local planning subcommittee has recommended that the district planning committee deposit a plan for an underground drainage channel running from Ariel Sharon Park to the beach in Jaffa. The decision, made at a September 16 meeting, came with a list of conditions aimed at keeping the land above the channel open to the public.
The channel would run beneath Mikveh Israel land, the Wolfson Interchange and Ba’al Shem Tov Boulevard before reaching the sea in Jaffa. It is meant to reduce the volume of water flowing into the Ayalon channel, protecting southern Tel Aviv neighborhoods and national transportation infrastructure from flooding during extreme rainfall. The need arose from the project to add a fourth railway track along the Ayalon, which involves narrowing the stream’s channel. The plan covers 1,012 dunams and was initiated by Netivei Israel, the national roads company.
Five above-ground sites are planned along the route: a connection facility to Ariel Sharon Park on Mikveh Israel land, a maintenance site between Yigal Yadin and HaLohamim streets, access shafts north of the Wolfson junction and in Neve Golan, and an outlet on the Jaffa slope with a pumping station and a drainage outlet to the sea.
The committee’s conditions
- Maintenance sites should be as small as possible and open to the public year-round except during maintenance, with no permanent fences.
- The sites must be coordinated with the planned metropolitan green corridor.
- At the sea outlet, pedestrian access through the park must be preserved, including the link to the port parking lot and the seafront promenade leading to the port.
- Construction staging should not take over the Jaffa Port parking lot and should instead use a small area at its southern end.
- Permanent surface parking marked at the Wolfson and Neve Golan sites should be removed, with future use set in coordination with the city.
- A section of the slope park marked as a road should be designated as public open space.
Depositing a plan means publishing it so the public can file objections. The decision on whether to deposit it rests with the district committee.
More information is available on the municipality website.
