The long-awaited extension of the Highway 6 Cross-Israel Highway has reached the northern Negev at last.
A new section of Highway 6 opened last week between the Shoket Interchange and the Shoket West Interchange in the Negev, broadening access to Highway 60 south of Be’er Sheva, and communities such as Omer and Meitar.
The extension also feeds out on to Highway 31, which has been upgraded from a narrow two-lane country road into a straightened-out, four-lane highway.
(If only someone would stop stealing the copper wire and LED bulbs from the street lights long that super-long stretch of dark night along the isolated segments of the highway, where Bedouin villages are nestled back among the hills ….)
Eventually, the plans for Highway 6 are set to include an extension to reach Nevatim, the recently completed IDF Training Base city. The 13-kilometer stretch between the Shoket and Nevatim Interchanges are next on the list.
Some of the road is a toll road, and some of it is free. The toll road begins from the Sorek Interchange, and continuing north.
The speed limit has just been raised to 120 kilometers per hour (75 miles per hour).
At present, the entire length of the highway spans 175 kilometers, north to south, including 18 interchanges to Shoket West, totalling a journey of 90 minutes.