A Bridge on Set of Drilled and Cast Piles 

HaMa`apilim Bridge is a conventional cast bridge built as part of the Highway 531 Project - starting from Highway 6 (Horshim Interchange), crossing Highway 4 at Ra`anana and meeting Highway 20 in the Rishpon and Shmaryahu East Interchange area. The bridge, opened for traffic in 2015, is made of steel pipes and crosses over the Ayalon Highway (Highway 20), an operational railway line and a busy junction between urban and intercity roads. The purpose of the project was to ease traffic loads between the Ayalon Highway and HaMa`apilim St., while ensuring full separation from the railway alignment.   

The bridge piers were built on a set of deep, drilled and cast piles, interconnected using a pile head. The piles were cast using bentonite suspension - a substance with a jelly-like consistency that does not penetrate the ground during excavation. Likewise, the piers were supported on various slurry elements.

The drilled piles were vertical with a minimum diameter of 0.8 metres up to a maximum of 1.1 metres. Their length varied between 15 - 22 metres and they were supported in a deep sand layer, the water being drained to an appropriate drainage outlet outside the foundation area.