The Carmel Tunnels are a set of road tunnels currently under construction in and around Haifa, Israel. The tunnels' purpose is to reduce road congestion in the Haifa area and to provide an alternate route of reaching the eastern part of the city, Haifa Bay and the Krayot area from Israel's central costal plain without having to travel through traffic-conjested downtown Haifa, having to drive up and across the Carmel Mountain or bypassing Haifa from the east, along the edge of the Jezreel Valley. A disused railway tunnel now converted to pedestrian and bicycle use, near Houyet, Belgium A tunnel is an underground passage. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... HaQrayot is an urban area in Israel, a conglomeration of five smaller towns located about 30km north of Haifa in the Haifa District, which as of 2003 contains: Qiryat Yam 38,000 people. ... A view of Mount Carmel in 1894 Mount Carmel is a coastal mountain range in Israel overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. ... The Jezreel Valley arabic (Sahel Zirin)سهل زرعين or Marj Ibn Amer(the meadow of the son of Amer) مرج بن عامر (Hebrew: עמק יזרעאל;Emek Yizrael, also known as the Plain of Esdraelon) is a large plain and inland valley in the north of Israel. ...

The entire project is 6.5km long, including two 4.7km long tunnels (for eastbound and westbound traffic) containing two lanes of traffic in each tunnel. The tunnels are being bored in the Carmel Mountains, essentially under the city of Haifa and will have three portals: from the west, near the MATAM business park (with a connection to the Coastal Highway and the Old Haifa-Tel Aviv Highway), and from the east, one from Rupin Road and one leading to the Krayot interchange. When completed, driving in the tunnel will require paying a toll. Highway 2 (Hebrew: , Kvish 2) is an Israeli highway located on the coastal plain of the Mediterranean Sea. ... Highway 4 (Hebrew: , Kvish 4) is an Israeli highway that runs along Israels entire coastal plain of the Mediterranean Sea, its rout is from the Erez Border Crossing with the Gaza Strip to Rosh Hanikra border crossing with Lebanon. ... A toll tunnel is a special road tunnel whose construction and/or maintenance costs are in part recouped through a toll charged for passing through it. ...

The project's expected completion is in 2010 or 2011. The winning tender for the contruction of the tunnels was awarded back in 1997 but problems associated with the financing for the project and citizen objections delayed the actual start of construction by about 10 years. 1997 (MCMXCVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...