ROADS in JAPAN

Sasago Tunnel Ceiling Collapse on the Chuo Expressway (PDF)

Incident summary, MLIT's response, Nationwide Urgent Inspection of Tunnel Ceiling Panels and “Research & Examination Committee for Tunnel Ceiling Collapse Incident

The Maintenance of National Road Network in Japan (PDF)

Road stocks in Japan, fiscal situation in Japan and maintenance and management of road stocks

Maintenance

Countermeasures for Aging Roads

Helping Local Governments Tackle with Aging Structures

Background/data

Issues surrounding aging structures.
There are an increasing number of municipal bridges that are restricted for traffic (there were 2,876 bridges in 2017). 30% of all towns and 60% of all villages in the country have no civil engineering technicians for bridge maintenance in their workforce.

○To ensure the inspected structures are well repaired, the MLIT provides municipalities with financial assistance for rehabilitation/replacement, increased budget allocation to local governments*5 and subsidies.
○By directly evaluating structures that require urgent and high-level technical capability, the MLIT repairs these structures on behalf of the local government*6.

○Through the road maintenance program, an area-wide lump sum ordering process is introduced for inspection work to make up for the shortage of workforce and engineering skills.
○Increase the quality of inspection by providing training sessions for local staff*7.

*5: Bond for public facility management (refer to P70) *6: Direct evaluation (FY2014-2017): 10 locations, repair work on behalf of municipality (FY2015-2018): 9 locations *7: a total of 3,700 municipal government staff members participated in 155 sessions held in FY2014 to 2017.

Life Extension and Streamlining by Introducing Innovation

Background/data

IInfrastructure is steadily aging while the workforce is shrinking.
-Maintenance activities need to be more productive and streamlined by developing/introducing innovative technologies.
○For further streamlining of periodic inspection, the Government started evaluating load-carrying capacities with a new technology and is widely inviting new approaches for the evaluation of structure's soundness.

 
 
 

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