The Kiryat Ono municipality was concerned about noise and air pollution from the new expressway. To address this, the expressway was built in a trench, acoustic walls were erected and some of the route adjacent to Kiryat Ono was built in a tunnel. The municipality was also concerned that the opening of a new entrance to Petah Tikva would cause the city's main street, Levi Eshkol Street, to turn into a bypass for the congested Geha Highway. The municipality instead proposed the construction of a western bypass of Kiryat Ono prior to the opening of the connection to Petah Tikva. Even after the expressway fully opened, the municipality blocked the connection to Petah Tikva using concrete barriers and sand piles for several weeks.
