Translate:高規格幹線道路
高規格幹線道路 (Japanese for 'Arterial High‐standard Highways') are roads that form the Japanese road network consisting of national expressways, general national highways, and the Honshu-Shikoku Bridge Expressway, and are constructed in such a way that automobiles can travel safely at high speeds.[1]
This road network was planned by amending the National Land Development Trunk Highway Construction Act, which was enacted in 1966 in response to subsequent changes in traffic conditions. It was conceived as part of the Fourth Comprehensive National Development Plan, which was decided by the Cabinet following a report from the Road Council on June 26, 1987.[1] The Fourth Comprehensive National Development Plan reviewed the previous Comprehensive National Development Plan (CNP) and proposed to address the concentration of population and functions in Tokyo, the worsening employment problems in regional areas, and internationalization by implementing a development method called the "Exchange Network Concept," based on the basic principle of "constructing a multi-polar, decentralized national land." The main project within this was the plan for a 14,000-kilometer (8,700 mi) high-standard trunk road network.
History
The high-standard trunk road system was established in 1966 by adding new expressways to the National Land Development Trunk Expressways (32 routes, 7,600 km or 4,700 mi) that had already been designated. This system expanded the national highway system to include National Land Development Trunk Expressways (43 routes, 11,520 km or 7,160 mi of high-standard trunk roads (national expressways) based on the National Trunk Highway Act), general national highways (general national highways parallel to national expressways and high-standard trunk roads (general national highways) designated by the Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, totaling 2,300 km or 1,400 mi), and the Honshu-Shikoku Bridge Authority (now the Honshu-Shikoku Bridge Corporation), which managed the Honshu-Shikoku Bridge Expressway (3 routes, 180 km or 110 mi) making up a total of 14,000 km (8,700 mi) of roads.[1] Of the routes newly added to the 7,600 km (4,700 mi)of planned routes excluding the Honshu-Shikoku Bridge, approximately 3,920 km (2,440 mi) were designated as National Land Development Trunk Roads, and the remaining 2,300 km (1,400 mi) were designated as high-standard trunk roads by the Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism.[2]
In 2023, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism announced a policy to unify the two categories, namely "regional high-standard roads," which are positioned together with "high-standard trunk roads" as roads that strengthen regional structures but have different planning procedures, into a new category of "high-standard roads," and to scrap and rebuild the route network as an integrated road network.[3]
Requirements
Connects to the existing National Land Development Trunk Expressway (7,600 km) and the Honshu-Shikoku Bridge Expressway (180 km), and meets any of the following requirements. [4]
- Efficiently connects regional central cities that serve as bases for regional development, and contributes to smoother exchanges between regions.
- Connects suburban areas in a circular manner in metropolitan areas, and contributes to smoother urban traffic and the formation of wide-area metropolitan areas.
- Connects important airports and harbors with high-standard trunk roads, and contributes to the organic combination of automobile traffic networks and air and sea routes.
- Necessary for the formation of a network that can be reached from cities and rural areas nationwide in roughly one hour, and contributes to the equalization of high-speed traffic services nationwide.
- Necessary for the formation of alternative routes in important sections of national trunk roads, and contributes to improving the reliability of the high-speed traffic system in the event of disasters, etc.
- This is necessary to alleviate severely congested sections of national highways and will contribute to improving rapid transport services.
Classification by development system
For the routes of 'high-standard trunk roads' (approximately 14,000 km), please refer to the route name table for each item.
- 'High-standard trunk roads based on the National Trunk Highway Act' (National Development Trunk Highway〈National Trunk Highway〉)
- One of the high-standard trunk roads stipulated to be constructed based on the National Development Trunk Highway Construction Act. The current total length is 11,520 km, including uncompleted sections. [2]. Routes of national expressways will be designated in the Cabinet Order in order from the sections of the planned route for which the basic plan has been decided.
- National Expressways: (Route A)
- Routes designated by the Cabinet Order Designating Routes of National Expressways based on Article 4 of the National Expressways Act (The Meaning of National Expressways and Route Designation). Originally, the construction and management of national highways was supposed to be carried out by the Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, who is the Road Administrator, but by law, national expressways are delegated to the expressway companies of the East Japan, Central Japan and West Japan (before privatization, it was the Japan Highway Public Corporation).
- Routes planned to be constructed as national expressways (excluding planned routes for national land development trunk roads), and designated by the Cabinet Order
- Four routes have been designated: Narita International Airport Line, Kansai International Airport Line, Kanmon Expressway, and Okinawa Expressway.
- 'General national highways for motor vehicles only that run parallel to national expressways: (A' Route)
- A road that is not necessary to build the entire section of a route that would normally be built as a national expressway, but which has been built in advance in some sections where construction of a general national highway is urgently needed to alleviate congestion and eliminate bottlenecks in mountainous areas. It may also be incorporated into a national expressway. Taxes (in the case of construction by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, the national and prefectural governments share the construction costs 2:1), or the East Japan, Central Japan and West Japan Expressway Companies (Japan Highway Public Corporation before privatization) provide additional construction costs.
- High-standard trunk roads designated by the Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (general national highways for automobiles only): (Route B)
- Roads designated by the Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism based on Article 48-2 of the Road Law. As they are bypass roads for general national highways, the construction costs are the same as those for Route A. The current total distance is about 2,480 km, including the unopened sections. [2]
- Honshu-Shikoku Link Highway
- The total distance is about 180 km.
- Honshu-Shikoku Link Highway
References
- ^ a b c Asai Kenji 2001, pp. 58–59.
- ^ a b c Minegishi Kunio 2018, p. 51.
- ^ "地域高規格道路 計画策定プロセス見直しへ" [Regional high-standard road planning process to be reviewed]. Construction news (in Japanese). Kentsu Newspaper Company. 2023-07-06. Retrieved 2023-12-01.
- ^ Kunio Minegishi 2018, p. 50.
Works cited
- Asai Kenji (2001-11-10). 道と路がわかる辞典 [Dictionary of roads and paths] (in Japanese) (First ed.). Nihon Jitsugyo Publishing. ISBN 4-534-03315-X.
- Kunio Minegishi (2018-10-24). トコトンやさしい道路の本 [The Thoroughly Easy Road Guide]. Today's Things to Know Series (in Japanese). Nikkan Kogyo Shimbun. ISBN 978-4-526-07891-0.
See also
