Ariel Sharon Park – Hiriya Landfill Rehabilitation

From the time of the establishment of the State of Israel until 1998, the site served as the main landfill for Gush Dan waste. For many years, the country’s “garbage heap” was a symbol of environmental, health and safety hazards, until the beginning of the rehabilitation process during the 2000s. The area of ​​the landfill is 450 dunams, rising 70 meters above ground, and contains about 16 million cubic meters of various types of waste. The process of rehabilitating the mountain and turning it into a park is considered a complex reclamation project based on the principles of sustainable development.
In order to sustain the vegetation on the mountain, significant infrastructure activities were executed above and below the surface.

Stopping pollution and preventing infiltration into groundwater, the top of the landfill has been sealed to prevent infiltration of rain, and ensure the stability of the soil. A pipeline system was established to collect the methane gas emitted from the landfill. A system of pipes was established for the collection of leachates (the juice of the garbage) in order to prevent their leakage into rivers and the environment. Massive earthworks were carried out in order to support the slopes and prevent their collapse.

A unique drainage system was constructed, composed of surface flow motifs that combine various recycled gravels with vegetation, with an emphasis on Mediterranean plants, which is connected to an underground storage system for collecting rainwater in the winter months for watering the park in the summer. The habitats of the park trees are fed from these same reservoirs.
We made wide use of recycled building waste as a raw material for landscape design. In order to bridge the differences in elevations within the mountain, retaining walls were constructed from recycled concrete surfaces. Tubers were planted in the ridges for winter flowering., etc.) collaborated to develop the topography and local growing conditions.