Photo Report】Can the Linear Central Shinkansen Line “open in 2037” be realized…″The reality is that there are a lot of problems

The total construction cost will double to 11 trillion yen!

The “groundbreaking ceremony” will be held deep in the mountains of the Southern Alps, where the fresh greenery is dazzling. Heavy machinery will finally be drilled into the 8.9-km “blank 8.9-km” in the Southern Alps Tunnel Shizuoka construction section of the Linear Central Shinkansen Line, which has remained untouched until the very end.

Kazuya Kobayashi, a journalist who has been covering the linear project for many years, explains how the national project, which had been in a stalemate, has finally begun to move forward.

The biggest reason for the change is the change in top management,” Kobayashi said. The current governor, Yasutomo Suzuki, 68, who succeeded Heita Kawakatsu, 77, as governor of Shizuoka Prefecture in 2012, is very supportive of the national project.

Regarding the Linear Line project, there have been 28 issues between Shizuoka Prefecture and JR Tokai concerning environmental preservation, etc., but all of them were approved at a technical committee meeting in late March, and I heard that the groundbreaking ceremony will be held by the end of June at the latest.

The fact that the construction has begun is commendable, but there is an unknown fault waiting deep underground in the Southern Alps, and the construction is expected to be difficult and take a tremendous amount of time. We have only reached the entrance to the Linear Linear project, and the real test is yet to come.

The biggest hurdle is the earth cover of over 1 km

The biggest hurdle is the excavation of the South Alps Tunnel. The biggest hurdle is the height of the mountain that will be placed over the tunnel (commonly known as the “earth cover”), which will reach a maximum of 1,400 meters.

This unprecedented pressure poses the risk of “mountain jumps” (the sudden bursting of the bedrock due to high ground pressure) and “sudden water inflows.

In addition, the total cost of the project has doubled from the original 5.5 trillion yen to approximately 11 trillion yen due to soaring prices and difficult construction work. The projection of “opening in 2037” at the earliest (between Shinagawa and Nagoya *including a one-year trial operation period) if construction starts this year is only a “temporary future” that depends on the assumption that “construction will proceed smoothly.

Even the Yamanashi and Nagano construction zones, which initially said 10 years, now say it will take 15 years. Moreover, the Shizuoka construction zone is more difficult than both of them, and if completion is delayed, the cost will also increase. Some essential water and environmental issues have yet to be resolved. The administration is speeding up for the groundbreaking ceremony, but the reality is that ″there are still many issues to be solved before the opening of the road,″ said Kobayashi.

On the other hand, construction of the “Kamanashi River Bridge,” the longest bridge on the Linear Line at 754.2 m in length, and the “Kanagawa Station (tentative name)” near JR Hashimoto Station appeared to be going smoothly.

When we asked JR Tokai, the company in charge of the Linear Line, about the feasibility of “opening in 2037” and how they are handling the geological risk, we received the following response.

The Shizuoka construction section, where tunnel excavation work has yet to begin, is directly related to the delay in the opening of the line, and at this point we are not at a stage where we can give an exact date for the opening of the entire line. The Shizuoka construction section is one of the most difficult and uncertain sections of the project. We believe that there is a possibility that the construction period may be extended further, given the need to give due consideration to the water resources of the Oigawa River and the environmental preservation of the Southern Alps.

Will the “national project,” which is now underway, ever be completed?