Tokyo Bay Aqua-line (Trans-Tokyo Bay Highway) and Improvement of the Road Network
Creating a balanced prefecture focusing on bisecting and high-grade trunk routes
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In Chiba Prefecture, we are promoting the improvement of a trunk road network
in order to create a balanced prefecture that is rich in local appeal. Our target
for the future is a highway system that will allow travel from the prefecture's
main cities to the prefectural capital Chiba in about one hour (Chiba-In-One-Hour
Concept). At present we are working to improve the high-grade trunk route network
and the local high-grade highway network, as exemplified by the Tokyo Bay Aqua-line
(Trans-Tokyo Bay Highway), the Metropolitan Inter-City Expressway, the Tateyama
Route of the Higashi Kanto Expressway (Tateyama Expressway), and others.
Tokyo Bay Aqua-line
Tokyo Bay Aqua-line
The Tokyo Bay Aqua-line extending for 15.1 kilometersC linking Kisarazu with Kawasaki
in just l5 minutes was opened on December 18,1997. It consists of a bridge from
the Kisarazu starting point to the "Umi-hotaru" (man-made island), and a seabed
tunnel from there to the Ukishima approach on the other side.
The Tokyo Bay Aqua-line has great effects to offset Chiba's peninsular nature
and to ease traffic congestion in the entire Metropolitan area. In addition, it
forms a new traffic link connecting eastern and western Japan by incorporating
the Metropolitan Inter-City Expressway.
Metropolitan Inter-City Expressway
A high]grade trunk road extending for a total of approximately 300 kilometers,
with a planned radius of about 40-60 kilometers from the center of the metropolis.
As well as linking with the Higashi Kanto expressway, the Joban expressway, and
other trunk roads in the metropolitan region, it will connect with the Trans-Tokyo
Bay Highway to form a loop road encompassing the entire region.
Sections in Chiba Prefecture stretch for about 95 kilometers from the border with Ibaraki Prefecture, to Narita, Togane, Mobara, and Kisrazu. In fiscal 1992, projects were created for the 28.5-kilometer section from Mobara to Kisarazu and the 10.7 kilometers from the Ibaraki Prefecture border to Taiei-machi.
Furthermore, the "Chiba-Togane Road" connecting between Yokoshiba and Togane was
opened in March 1998. This is expected to ease traffic congestion and to improve
industrial and economic development in the Sanbu and Toso area.
Tateyama Route of the Higashi Kanto Expressway(Tateyama Expressway)
Tateyama Expressway |
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An expressway that links Chiba City with Tateyama. The section between Chiba and
Kisarazu was completed in 1995, and the section between Kisarauz and Futtsu is
being improved. Between Futtsu and Tateyama the development of the High-Grade
Tateyama Highway is underway as a bypass to National Route No. 127. Forming
a pant of this highway, the link between Futtsu-Takeoka and Kyonan-Tomiyama interchanges
were opened in March 1999.
Improving local high-grade roads
We are promoting the improvement of local high-grade roads such as the Choshi Link Road, the Tateyama-Kamogawa Road, the Kamoguwa-Ohara Road and the Mobara-Ichinomiya-Ohara Road as roads that strengthen mutual links between cities in the nucleus of the region and form an efficient network of wide-area traffic carriers such as high-grade trunk routes