Lighting Up Route 3415 Brings Safer Access to Eastern Lachish Communities

A ceremony this week marked the opening of Phase 1 of the upgrade to Highway 3415, the main access road for the eastern Lachish communities. The project, which cost about NIS 40 million, is aimed at significantly improving safety for drivers and residents, especially the former Gush Katif evacuees living in the area.

The first stage included installing about 210 light fixtures along roughly 7 kilometers of road, making night driving safer. Further work is planned later, including adding shoulders and building a new roundabout at the entrance to Moshav Lachish.

Highway 3415, also known as the Lachish-Amatzia road, serves seven eastern Lachish communities, among them Bnei Dekalim, Neta, and Karmit Katif, all populated by families displaced from Gush Katif. The project was advanced after a working meeting about a year ago in Bnei Dekalim, when Transportation and Road Safety Minister Miri Regev instructed officials to promote a broad plan to improve access roads.

Regev said, "A lit road is a life-saving road. Residents of the Lachish region deserve to travel safely at any hour, and that is our commitment." MK Avichai Boaron said the road is "very winding, and driving on it at night without lighting is difficult and dangerous." Lachish Regional Council head Boaz Shlomo said that after about two years of work and cooperation, the council is inaugurating a "life-saving project" that will greatly improve safety. Deputy council head Chen Guterman said, "We made history today," and noted that an additional strategic plan is being advanced for a new road linking the area to Beit Guvrin.