The future is already here

It’s 7:50 Sunday morning. Almog, who lives in East Netanya, has to arrive at her workplace at 8:00 am in the western part of the city. She gets on the skytran and an airlift, and within four minutes she sits in a meeting room at her workplace. Sounds unreal? In Netanya it actually sounds realistic.

Netanya is the first city in which the Skytran project is being planned with the assistance of the Ministry of Transport. This is a unique project of NASA and IAI that will help reduce public traffic in the city. In recent years, the city of Netanya has undergone a revolution in a variety of areas.

The Skytran project model

Among the city’s leading projects: the establishment of a high-speed communications infrastructure on a fiber optic system, the deployment of a wired network on the beaches and throughout the city. In addition, the Car2go electric vehicle system, designed for short trips, will be added and will save on car travel costs.

A new promenade will be built on Melachim Street. On the promenade, a walkway will be paved, gardening and playgrounds and shading will be established. In addition, the Ministry of Tourism began the construction of an additional elevator to the sea, close to the hotels of Island and Ramada.

The Melachim Promenade

In 2017 the Sapir Railway Station was established. On the agenda is the construction of another railway station near Netanya Stadium. And so a third station will be added to the city.

The Sapir Railway Station

The Netanya Municipality will turn Herzl Street into the first “Street Mall” in Israel – an innovative and fresh street with a variety of activities and a youthful appearance. The works will be carried out in the section between Weizman Boulevard / Binyamin Boulevard and the beginning of the pedestrian mall on Dizengoff Street and are intended to turn Herzl Street into a street shopping mall, a partially covered shopping complex similar to the most advanced shopping centers in Israel and around the world.

“Street Mall” – Herzl Street

The bridge, which was built in the south of the city above Ben-Gurion Boulevard, serves pedestrians and cyclists as a convenient and accessible passage between the winter lake (pond) in the east to the Iris Reservation on the west.

The bridge of  the Iris Reservation

More than NIS 150 million will be invested in strengthening Netanya’s cliffs. The works will be based on a master plan for the cliffs, and will be carried out in two sections of the coast: in the section between Sironit Beach and Argaman Beach and between the Herzl Beach and the Blue Bay beach. As part of the work in the first section, the government company will build three breakwaters, while in the area between them and the beach, artificial sand will be inserted, which is intended to balance the sand that accumulates nearby and the sand that will be swept to nearby beaches. These works are expected to begin in mid-2018, and the works in the second section from Herzl Beach to Blue Bay will begin in March 2018.