National Roads Company of Israel

"Maatz" redirects here. For the French commune, see Maâtz.

Netivei Israel (Hebrew: נתיבי ישראל‎, lit. Routes of Israel),[1] formerly the National Roads Company of Israel (Hebrew: הַחֶבְרָה הַלְּאֻמִּית לִדְרָכִים בְּיִשְׂרָאֵל, HaHevra HaLe'umit LiDrakhim BeYisra'el), also called National Roads Authority, is a government-owned corporation, in charge of planning, construction and maintenance of most road infrastructure in Israel, including roads, bridges and interchanges.

Public Works Department's workers in the negev, 1950

The National Road Company is the successor of the Public Works Department (PWD) of the Ministry of Transportation (PWD in Hebrew: מע"צ, Ma'atz), which was founded in 1921.[2] On September 15, 2003 it was decided to reorganize Ma'atz and reconstitute it as a new government-owned corporation that would start operation on January 1, 2004.[3][4] Since becoming the National Roads Company, the company usually no longer directly constructs new roads but rather plans then issues tenders for and manages new roads' construction by companies in the private sector. Beginning in 2010, the company has also been tasked with planning, issuing tenders for, and managing the construction of new railway lines for Israel Railways.

6500 kilometers of roads fall under the company's responsibility. These constitute most of the inter-city roads in Israel. Other companies responsible for inter-city roads are Yefe Nof in Haifa, Netivei Ayalon in Gush Dan and Moriah in Jerusalem, as well as Derekh Eretz which is responsible for the Cross-Israel Highway and Netivei Yovel responsible for Highway 431. The budget of the company for 2008 was 2.805 billion shekels, 800 million of which were dedicated to road maintenance. The budget is expected to rise to 3.88 billion in 2009.[5]

The National Road Company still uses a logo with the three letters mem-ayin-tsade on it, which spell out "Ma'atz" and is still often widely referred to by that acronym, even though it is no longer officially named the "Public Works Department".

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References

  1. ↑ http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-4308545,00.html
  2. ↑ Album of the National Road Company from the official website
  3. ↑ "Court verdict: Ma'atz National Road Company of Israel against Yosef Peusner". 2008-08-14. Retrieved 2008-12-29.
  4. ↑ "2006 report of the state comproller of Israel" (in Hebrew). Retrieved 2008-12-29.
  5. ↑ David Marom (2007-12-27). "Ministry of Finance: Budget of Ma'atz was not cut off." (in Hebrew). News1. Retrieved 2008-12-29.

External links