Breaking Update
Five Groups Submit Bids for Expansion of Trans-Samaria Highway
Five major economic groups submitted bids for Israel's Highway 5 expansion, a key project to ease Tel Aviv congestion with a new expressway and transport.
Jerusalem, 15 February, 2026 (TPS-IL) — Five leading groups in the economy submitted bids in the tender for the construction, financing and operation of the expressway project on Israel’s Highway 5, also known as the Trans-Samaria Highway, which travels from the greater Tel Aviv era to the east through Samaria.
Israel’s Treasury called “this one of the most important and central transportation projects currently being promoted in the Dan Bloc (greater Tel Aviv) metropolitan area.”
The project includes the construction of a two-way expressway along Highway 5 in the section between Kesem and Galililot Mizrahi, and alongside it the construction of a large integrated transportation complex (ITC) at the Kesem Interchange, which will include approximately 3,200 parking spaces. The complex will allow private vehicles to be parked outside the metropolis and continue their journey, using public transportation and a designated and free shuttle system to central employment centers in the Dan Bloc. The project is expected to open to traffic within approximately five years.
The project will connect to the expressway system on Highways 20 and 2, which are expected to open this March, and together will create a continuous network of expressways that will significantly ease congestion in the Tel Aviv metropolitan area.
