Carmel Tunnels

Highway 23, more-commonly known as the "Carmel Tunnels" (Hebrew: מנהרות הכרמל, Minharot HaCarmel), are a set of toll tunnels in Haifa, Israel. The tunnels' purpose is to reduce road congestion in the Haifa area and to provide an alternative route for reaching the eastern and central parts of the city, Haifa Bay and the Krayot area to and from Israel's central coastal plain without having to travel through traffic-congested downtown Haifa, having to drive up and across Mount Carmel, or bypassing Haifa from the east – along the edge of the Jezreel Valley (via Highway 70 for example). The tunnels cut the travel time from the Haifa South interchange in the west to the Checkpost interchange in the east from 30 to 50 minutes down to 6 minutes. The tunnels were built and are operated as a BOT project. They were opened to traffic on 1 December 2010.