After five decades of supporting lives and the economy,
now proceeding to the next era
While motorization in Japan advanced rapidly since the 1950s, road improvement kept getting delayed, causing chronic traffic jams in central Tokyo.Construction of the Metropolitan Expressway route was started with the aim of easing these traffic jams. A 4.5 km-long Metropolitan Expressway from Kyobashi to Shibaura was built in December 1962.
Higashi Shinagawa pier and Samezu reclamation area section on the Haneda Line were opened in December 1963 before the Tokyo Olympics by quick construction work in the Keihin Canal, which is a public space, in order to avoid densely populated residential areas.
Metropolitan Expressway of approximately 33 km in length was opened by the time the Tokyo Olympics games were to be held in October 1964. We responded to great social demands including improvement of access routes from Haneda Airport to central Tokyo.
As the traffic volume increased, networking of suburbs and the interurban was enhanced with the development of radial routes, including the Shibuya line heading to the suburbs from the inner circular route, the connection with interurban expressways, including Tomei Expressway, and the development of networks, including central circular route also represented by the Yamate Tunnel. As a result, the daily traffic volume became about 1 million vehicles on about 327 km-long Metropolitan Expressway. (As of March 2020)
The Metropolitan Expressway is constructed using public spaces such as roads and rivers in an already developed city. Most parts of the route are constructed using viaducts and tunnels. These structures are constantly inspected and repaired to provide safe, secure, and smooth traffic flow.
The Metropolitan Expressway sustains the logistics in the Tokyo Metropolitan area and is used heavily. Compared to other routes, the sheer traffic volume of large size vehicles puts a heavier burden on the structures of this route. More than 50 years of use since its opening has resulted in the aging of routes, and inspections and repairs carried out so far have brought forth the areas that have been difficult to deal with.
“Major Renovations” to rebuild route structures such as restoring the bridges or replacing floor slabs and “Major Repairs” to intensively repair entire structures were considered from a technical and economic viewpoint, to continue to provide safe and secure routes to our customers while maintaining the longevity of the route against a backdrop of severe use conditions of the Metropolitan Expressway and its aging.
As a result of this consideration, experts in Major Renovations and Major Repairs of the Metropolitan Expressway came up with a proposal in January 2013. Based on the proposal, the plan of the Metropolitan Expressway project including "Sections between Higashi Shinagawa pier and Samezu reclamation area Renovation Program" was formed in June 2014. and the Shutoko Renewal Project was initiated.
Haneda Line (Higashi Shinagawa・Samezu) Renewal was undertaken from February 2016, as the first step of the Shutoko Renewal Project.
The Higashi Shinagawa pier and Samezu reclamation area had opened just before the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. A 1.9-km long road structure, which had been severely damaged due to heavy use for over 50 years since its opening and severely corroded by seawater, will be rebuilt into a structure with excellent durability and maintainability to ensure long-term safety.
We will proceed with the plan to complete construction by 2030. Detours will secure the traffic of approximately 70,000 vehicles per day so that travelers will not face any inconvenience due to long-term road closures resulting from construction work without impacting daily life, logistics, and economy in the Tokyo Metropolitan area.
We will go ahead with the Metropolitan Expressway Renewal project to maintain the route as a highly resilient and important road network in Tokyo metropolis, with safety as its core foundation even in the next 100 years.
