One of the things non-car things that car enthusiasts can appreciate about Japan is its amazing infrastructure. Whereas pothole-riddled roads in the US are perpetually bandaged over, Japan goes through great lengths to completely rebuild entire roads when needed. Tokyo is currently renovating its Route 1, connecting the city center to Haneda Airport, and it’s no small undertaking.
The original Route 1 was constructed in the buildup to the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. The first of four sections opened in 1962 with the rest completed over the next four years. About a fifth of the The 14-kilometer (8.6 mile) expressway rises out of canals and rivers feeding into Tokyo Bay, giving the route its striking appearance.
The Haneda Route sees 70,000 vehicles per day. Though the supports are inspected on a daily basis, after 50-plus years salt water and heavy traffic have chipped away at the concrete and rebar that holds the roadway up.
To replace a 1.9km section of the route, a whole detour roadway was constructed, taking northbound traffic as those lanes were rebuilt. This involved diverting an existing on-ramp to the detour itself. Once the actual northbound lanes were completed, they were temporarily used to accommodate southbound traffic, as the detour continued to serve northbound vehicles. When the final southbound lanes were finished, the detour was removed entirely.
Complicating the construction was the fact that the Haneda Route runs parallel to the Tokyo Monorail. For the lanes closest to the monorail, much of the construction had to take place at night when the the train wasn’t running for safety reasons. It also had to be done in cramped quarters sandwiched between existing structures and the monorail track.
All of this took place while still accommodating traffic between Tokyo and Haneda, and as a reminder this section of the expressway is suspended above water. Construction began in February 2016 and is almost complete. The last step is reconnecting the aforementioned on-ramp with the completed roadway. A decade in the making for a 1.9-km section of expressway, but that’s what’s required to keep Tokyo humming.
I’ve spent literally decades stuck in traffic on that #^%~ stretch watching the horse & motorboat races.
Never ridden the monorail, but experienced the giant spiral ramp to Daikoku Futo PA, the Shinkansen, and Linimo all within a 48 hour span and was struck with the thought that Japan was truly all it’s cracked up to be in the transportation infrastructure department.
Best memories in the late sixties and early seventies as a kid going from Haneda to home on this route, riding in the back of a black Century, Crown, or Cedric. The seats were always lined in white linen, and I remember experiencing rear-seat air filtering, auto A/C, and intermittent wipers for the 1st time on this ride home.