(PHOTOS IN EXTENDED ARTICLE)

Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat will set up a high-tech, academic, residential and leisure village over the Begin Highway

The plan includes the construction of a high-tech village, about 2000 housing units for young people and a huge open park that includes green areas, bicycle trails, cafes and various activity areas

Barkat: “We thought outside the box and created a plan that creates from scratch green areas, a high-tech village and thousands of new housing units that will strengthen and connect Jerusalem.”

What do we do when we lack land for construction and development? The mayor of Jerusalem Nir Barkat initiates the construction of a high-tech, residential and recreational academy in a surprising and central location above the Begin Highway in Jerusalem.

The innovative program initiated by Barkat will create a new space in the center of Jerusalem, similar to the best universities in the world, such as Stanford and Harvard in the US.

The program will include a section of Begin Highway between the Givat Mordechai and the Givat Shaul Interchanges that will create a new and central urban space in the city. And Biotech in an area of ​​about 70,000 square meters in a concept that exists at Harvard and Stanford where the most important business and development complexes are located adjacent to the university in a way that connects the largest companies in the world.

In the center of the new village area, just above the road, will be a huge park with an area of ​​about 70 dunam, which will become a center of leisure and recreation, including cycling and walking trails, green areas and cafes, and a significant urban connection between Beit HaKerem and the Hebrew University.

In addition, 1,830 new housing units will be built in the new area, of which 50% will be small housing units for young families in the city, according to the mayor’s vision, 250 sheltered housing units and 13,390 square meters of commercial space and open public areas.

Barkat noted that “Jerusalem has tremendous comparative advantages in academia and high-tech on a global level, so in order to overcome the shortage of land, we thought outside the box and created a revolutionary program that creates parks and green spaces, a high-tech village and thousands of new housing units that will enable us to develop more places of employment and education, More possibilities for young families to live, and more parks and open spaces, and that’s how we connect Jerusalem and strengthen it. ”

The plan will be presented for the first time in two weeks to the approval of the local planning and building committee and will be launched. The municipality promotes the plan in cooperation with the Israel Land Authority, the Jerusalem Development Authority and the Jerusalem Heritage Authority.

The Begin Highway is the main and most important traffic artery in Jerusalem. Today the road serves as a buffer between East and West. One of the paths Barkat leads to dealing with the land shortage in the city is the creation of a reserve of land for various uses in the upper or subterranean space, utilizing land areas designated for public areas such as roads, multi-layered construction, combined with these public areas.

he Begin roofing plan, designed by the Office of Kolker-Kolker-Epstein, constitutes a central link as part of an innovative and modern urban continuum created by three interconnected plans. The plan for the business quarter currently under construction at the entrance to the city, the Government Complex-Kiryat Ben-Gurion plan, which includes the areas of existing government ministries and serves as a reserve and platform for the relocation of all government ministries to Jerusalem. In addition, it will run along the Green Line of the planned light rail from Gilo to Mount Scopus and it is expected to increase the accessibility of the entire area.

Attached are simulations of Begin roofing, credit: Dagan Advanced visual solutions.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)