There will be a bombing in central Tel Aviv Friday morning, police said Wednesday, as plans were finalized for the demolition of the iconic Ma’ariv Bridge to make room for construction of the first line in the Tel Aviv light rail.
Police are making preparations for the public to observe the explosion that will take down the flyover, and said Wednesday there will be a viewing section for the public as well as a press section.
Already on Wednesday afternoon police will begin closing streets around the bridge, which took traffic from Menachem Begin Street over the junction with Lincoln, Carlebach, and Yitzhak Sadeh streets.
Traffic will be closed on Menachem Begin street north from Harakevet street, and southbound on the street from David Hachimi street. Traffic will be blocked on HaMasger Street and Yitzhak Sadeh in the direction of the junction, as well as on Yehuda Halevi and in the area around Bet Rubinstein. Public transportation lines running in that area will be diverted to a section of HaMasger Street.
Dedicated in 1976, the flyover has become a local landmark and an icon of the central Tel Aviv landscape. It was named for the headquarters of Ma’ariv newspaper, which occupied the corner of Carlebach and Menachem Begin Street for decades until the paper was sold in 2012 and later vacated the premises.
The demolition will make way for the construction of a light rail station at the site, as part of the construction of the Red Line, the first in the rail system, which began earlier this month.