The illegal bike path construction is returning to French Hill

This past Sunday morning municipal workers roped off the lower section of Lehi street in French Hill in order to start the construction work for bike paths next week. This is despite the fact that the work on Churchill boulevard has not been completed yet containing entire sections that have stood in a half finished state for months. This is also despite the fact that the bike path project has proven itself dangerous to the public at large (for an explanation read here and here while for specific incidents read here and here).

Word has it that the order to proceed onward with this project comes directly from the head of the Transportation & Infrastructure Development Division in the Jerusalem Municipality, Kobi Bartov. The Amuta "North Jerusalem Residents for Safety and Quality of Life" has filed a claim in court against this department based on the discovery that the bike paths are being constructed without any legal authorization. It turns out that the department in question did not submit its plans to the Town Planning Scheme and did not acquire a building permit. Instead it attempted to justify the work as what is known as "traffic arrangements". However, according to the High Court of Justice's definition of the term, projects on the scale of the bike paths do not fit within the scope of such arrangements (for more information on the illegality of the bike path project read here). It seems that this incursion into Lehi street is a desperate attempt by the Transportation & Infrastructure Development Division to expand the area of construction as much as possible while establishing "facts on the ground" prior to the court hearing in the next few months.

Lehi street this past Sunday morning - the municipality wishes to start work next week.

Churchill Boulevard is far from being finished and yet the city wishes to expand work to Lehi street.

This section of Churchill Boulevard has sat in a half-finished state for months since the municipality expanded its construction work to other sections of the street in order to expand as quickly as possible. Now it wants to do so again...