Waves Public Works Department Sharon

  • Issue: September 1996
  • Designer: Molcholand
  • Stamp size: 40 x 25.7 mm
  • Plate no.: 293
  • Sheet of 15 stamps Tabs: 5
  • Printers: Government Printers
  • Method of printing: Offset

1921 marked the beginning. The British High Commissioner Herbert Samuel was active in establishing public civil administrative bodies in Palestine.

The Public Works Department first functioned as an engineering unit of the British Mandate in Eretz Israel. Since its inception, the Public Works Department has faced extremely complex engineering challenges such as the construction of Jaffa Port, the Yarkon Bridge, tunnels, interchanges and far-reaching technological improvements in all aspects of road engineering and their paving.

The pioneer spirit attributed to the Public Works Department stems from the character of its past and present activity. At the start, there was the carriage way, and all those who owned hammers took tools in hand and smashed rocks to pave the roads.

The men and women pioneers grew strong in the working parties, and the roads served as a melting pot of the nation renewing its past, and of a nation in the making.

Slowly but surely, the single roads turned into traffic arteries, creating a wealthy network of roads, connecting distant regions to the center of the country, the small village with the city and the industrial zone with the residential neighbourhood.

The pioneer department changed, and went to the forefront in the country's development. Economists and policy makers discovered that investing in infrastructure is the basis for a strong, ever-developing economy, and that shortening the travelling distance between two points necessarily results in savings for the national economy. And so, the Public Works Department was called on to break through new roads, expand existing ones, construct interchanges which created traffic continuity on crowded axes, to regulate traffic at intersections and to invest millions of NIS in improving safety levels on all the country's roads. Hundreds of projects are carried out during all hours of the day and in all weather.

The need to improve the safety level of the roads and to prevent traffic accidents has lead the Public Works Department to develop new safety measures, including: "the forgiving road", for example, which allows a driver in distress (the result of swerving out of the lane or making a sharp turn) to return to the road with the aid of a specially engineered structure on the road and with the aid of safety accessories installed along the road - guard rails and barriers, "cat's eyes", stabilized shoulders, etc.

During wartime, the Public Works Department was always the first to pave roads in enemy territory, and to construct Bailey bridges over water so as to transport the fighting forces.

The Public Works Department is the first on the scene during times of peace as well. The paving of roads to the new Jordanian border, passing through the Arava desert and the Jordan Valley, was completed in a mere few days, without compromising the quality of the work.

Anyone travelling around Israel can't help but notice the momentum in the nation's road network. Seven and a half decades of work are obvious in every corner of the nation. The massive landscape development with which every project is enhanced adds grace and beauty to the infinite kilometres of asphalt.

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75 years - P.W.D. (Public Works Department)