Transport, Roads and Traffic

Transport, Roads and Traffic terms of budget, system, and technical ability that can 1 Introduction lead to purely reactive on-site measures. More than half a century has passed since the start Against this background, the Road Committee of of full-scale efforts to build up Japan’s road network. As the Panel on Infrastructure Development compiled the construction requirements have evolved, the national Recommendations for Full-scale Maintenance of Aging road network has come to play a major role in support- Roads report at the 46th basic policy meeting on April ing the social and economic activities of the country. 14, 2014. It presents important recommendations on However, roads and road infrastructure, especially bridg- implementing measures to maintain the aging road infra- es, are aging rapidly. In December 2012, ceiling panels structure, which are outlined below. The full text of the in the Tokyo-bound Sasago Tunnel along the Chuo recommendations is available from the Ministry of Land, Expressway collapsed, killing nine people and creating Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) website. a prolonged closure of that section of the expressway. 2. 2. Recommendations on the full-scale maintenance Many other defects caused by aging of road infrastruc- of aging roads ture have been reported nationwide. 2. 2. 1. Current state of road infrastructure Until now, expressway policies emphasized road devel- There are currently some 700,000 road bridges and opment, but they are now moving towards emphasizing some 10,000 road tunnels across Japan. Of those 700,000 service. There are calls to pave the way for the evolu- bridges, 70%, or about 520,000, are located on municipal tion of a next-generation expressway network that is roads (Fig. 2) the majority of which are managed by local sustainable and, for users, more rational and highly con- governments. Many of those bridges and tunnels date venient. to the concentrated construction period of high economic This article considers the current road situation and growth and are aging rapidly. In ten years, the number presents recent trends concerning expressways and Roads for measures to deal with the aging road infrastructure. Approx. 83,000 km National expressways (approx. 0.7%) motor vehicles National highways under MLIT only Approx. 23,200 km jurisdiction (approx. 1.9%) 2 Roads A r t National highways under prefectural e r i Approx. 31,900 km jurisdiction (approx. 2.6%) a 2. 1. Background to the recommendations l r o a The social capital stock represented by concentrated d s road construction during the period of high economic Approx. 129,300 km Prefectural roads (approx. 10.7%) growth is rapidly eroding and, with problems caused by Approx. 1,020,300 km Municipal roads (approx. 84.1%) the aging of part of the road infrastructure coming to R e s i d light, measures against that aging have become an ur- e n t i a gent issue. These problems concerning the aging of the l r o a road infrastructure, as well as the necessity and impor- d s tance of addressing them, have been pointed out count- less times before in various proposals and reports. As shown in Figure 1, the overwhelming majority of road Total Approx. 1,213,000 km (100.0%) length in Japan falls under the jurisdiction of prefectures * Road Bureau data (April 2013) or municipalities. These jurisdictions face challenges in Fig. 1 Japanese road types and proportions by length. Copyright© 2014 Society of Automotive Engineers of Japan, Inc. All rights reserved National expressways sion, occur every year. Approx. 14,000 bridges (2%) Historically, Japan built wooden bridges and “mainte- National highways under nance” simply meant that it was normal to build a new MLIT jurisdiction Approx. 30,000 bridges (4%) bridge when one was lost to flood or fire. Bridges made of steel and concrete became widespread around 1955, National highways under Bridges (2 m or longer) prefectural jurisdiction and were called “permanent bridges” at the time. The Approx. 700,000 Approx. 30,000 bridges (4%) Municipal roads lack awareness of the need for maintenance and manage- Approx. 520,000 bridges (75%) ment is illustrated by the contemporary belief that such Prefectural roads Approx. 100,000 bridges (15%) bridges were maintenance-free and required no more than repainting. Fig. 2 Number of bridges by road type 2. 2. 2. Issues around aging road maintenance 2023 The budget allocated to maintenance and rehabilita- (in 10 years) 50-year old bridges 50-year old bridges (Approx. 171,000 bridges) tion of national highways under MLIT jurisdiction, which (Approx. 71,000 bridges) 2013 National and prefectural road total should normally have increased to deal with aging road infrastructure, decreased by about 20% in the last ten 18％ years in conjunction with cuts in the national budget for 43％ public works. In 2012, the national government instituted a Subsidy for Disaster Damage Prevention and Safety Program, which provides financial support for giving priority to Fig. 3 Proportion of 50-year old bridges (excluding cases bridge inspection and rehabilitation in municipal gov- where age is unknown) ernment road budgets. However, even more support is Bridges required as about 90% of municipalities are requesting 2 500 More than double 2 104 further subsidies for the maintenance of their aging in- 2 012 1 874 2 000 1 764 frastructure. Under such financial constraints, about 70% of munici- 1 500 1 313 palities experience difficulty in attracting new invest- 977 1 000 ments, and about 90% of them are expressing concerns 500 over safety problems arising from the lack of funds necessary for aging road maintenance. 0 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 Smaller local government budgets require spreading Fig. 4 Traffic restrictions on bridges (2 m or longer) managed out the cost of large-scale construction, such as the re- by local governments building of bridges, over several fiscal years. However of bridges that are 50 years old is expected to exceed the current subsidy program is not designed to provide 40% (Fig. 3). multi-year financial support for large scale rehabilitation Deformation due to age has recently been surfacing in or rebuilding projects. some structures that were rushed to completion for the With regard to the institutional framework, about 50% 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games or the 1970 Expo in Osaka, of towns and 70% of villages do not have civil engineers or built in severe environments such as coastal or un- on staff to deal with bridge maintenance (Fig. 5). An- derwater locations. By contrast, many bridges that have other issue is the poor quality of the bridge inspection been in use for 80 years remain undamaged thanks to guidelines in municipalities, many of which only call for a timely and diligent repair and reinforcement. visual inspection at a distance. In the last 5 years, the number of bridges managed by Furthermore the age of about half of the bridges un- local governments that have been closed or subjected to der municipal jurisdiction is unclear, calling attention to vehicle weight restrictions has more than doubled (Fig. 4). the insufficient preparation of road inventories and the Moreover, accidents caused by falling concrete blocks in high number of road administrators who fail to store tunnels, or by the collapse of a street lamp due to corro- and manage the bridge design documents. This demon- Copyright© 2014 Society of Automotive Engineers of Japan, Inc. All rights reserved None 2. 2. 4. MLIT initiatives 1 to 5 Cities None 1 to 5 6 or more 6 or more In response to the Sasago Tunnel ceiling collapse ac- N＝391（14％）（55％）（31％） cident, the MLIT urgently carried out emergency and in- tensive inspections to ensure a minimum degree of safety Towns None 1 to 5 6 or more in terms of preventing injury to third parties. Further, （46 ）（52 ）（2 ） N＝367 ％％％ to set up a full-scale maintenance cycle, the MLIT has used recommendations by committees on the Panel on Villages None 1 to 5 6 or more Infrastructure Development to introduce amendments to N＝90 （70％）（30％）（0％） the Road Act that provide legal inspection standards and 0％ 20％ 40％ 60％ 80％ 100％ establish a system that allows the national government to carry out maintenance work on behalf of municipali- * Road Bureau data (July 2012) ties. Fig. 5 Number of civil engineers employed by municipalities (for bridge maintenance) 2. 2. 5. Looking ahead To achieve the comprehensive implementation of ag- strates that some municipalities do not know the scale or ing road maintenance, and, in particular, to promote ini- condition of the infrastructure under their care and can tiatives at the local government level, the MLIT should be said to reflect poor awareness of the importance of use the following two pillars as the basis for the launch rehabilitating and upgrading it. of a full-scale maintenance cycle. Due to their low volume of traffic, expressway over- 2. 2. 5. 1. Define the maintenance cycle (make road passes receive a low maintenance priority from road administrator duties clear) administrators, and some are never inspected. However, This involves stipulating inspection and assessment they can cause significant damage to third-parties if standards based on the Road Act to clarify the responsi- something unexpected happens. bilities of road administrators (rules and standards) and 2. 2. 3. Two fundamental issues allow citizens to feel safe using the road infrastructure. The aging of road infrastructure is not a new issue, 2. 2. 5. 2. Building mechanisms to carry out the and the necessity of taking action has been pointed out maintenance cycle in the past. Expressways and national highways under This involves the setting up of mechanisms includ- MLIT jurisdictions are at the core of Japan’s socioeco- ing the necessary budget, framework, and technology nomic activities and measures to keep them from dete- to allow road administrators to implement a sustainable riorating are well underway.

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