The is a national

expressway Expressway may refer to: * Controlled-access highway, the highest-grade type of highway with access ramps, lane markings, etc., for high-speed traffic. * Limited-access road, a lower grade of highway or arterial road. *Expressway, the fictional s ...

in the

Tōhoku region The , Northeast region, or consists of the northeastern portion of Honshu, the largest island of Japan. This traditional region consists of six prefectures (''ken''): Akita, Aomori, Fukushima, Iwate, Miyagi, and Yamagata. Tōhoku retains a ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. The expressway begins at an interchange with the

Tōhoku Expressway The is a south-north national expressway, and the longest expressway in Japan at . Its southern terminus is in Kawaguchi, Saitama in the Greater Tokyo Area, at the Tokyo Gaikan Expressway and Kawaguchi Route near Araijuku Station, and its no ...

Kitakami, Iwate is a city located in Iwate Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 92,311, and a population density of 210 persons per km2 in 37,085 households. The total area of the city is . The city is famous for the sakura that bloo ...

from where it proceeds northwest towards the capital of

Akita Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Tōhoku region of Honshu.Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "Provinces and prefectures" in ; "Tōhoku" in . Its population is approximately 966,000 (as of 1 October 2019) and its ge ...

Akita is a Japanese name and may refer to: Places * 8182 Akita, a main-belt asteroid * Akita Castle, a Nara period fortified settlement in Akita, Japan * Akita Domain, also known as Kubota Domain, feudal domain in Edo period Japan * Akita, Kumamoto ...

. From there, it travels northeast back to another interchange along the Tōhoku Expressway in the town of Kosaka. It is jointly owned and operated by

East Nippon Expressway Company The , abbreviated as , is one of the main operators of expressways and toll roads in Japan. It is headquartered in Kasumigaseki, Chiyoda, Tokyo. The company was established on October 1, 2005 as a result of the privatization of Japan Highway Pub ...

and the

Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism The , abbreviated MLIT, is a ministry of the Japanese government.国土交通省設置法 ...

(MLIT). The Akita Expressway is numbered E7 between Kosaka and Kitakami Junctions and E46 between Kitakami and Kawabe Junctions under the MLIT's "2016 Proposal for Realization of Expressway Numbering."

Route description

The expressway begins at a junction with the

Iwate Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Tōhoku region of Honshu. It is the second-largest Japanese prefecture at , with a population of 1,210,534 (as of October 1, 2020). Iwate Prefecture borders Aomori Prefecture to the north, Akita Prefectur ...

and crosses into

to the west. The route intersects the

Yuzawa-Yokote Road The Yuzawa-Yokote Road (湯沢横手道路 ''Yuzawa-Yokote Dōro'') is a two-lane partially-tolled road in Akita Prefecture connecting the cities Yuzawa and Yokote while bypassing the original routing of Japan National Route 13. The road is jointl ...

Yokote is a city located in Akita Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 89,574 in 34,240 households, and a population density of 130 persons per km². The total area of the city is . Geography Yokote is located in southeast c ...

and the

Nihonkai-Tōhoku Expressway The is a national expressway in Japan. It is owned and operated by East Nippon Expressway Company. Naming The course of the expressway takes it alongside the coastline of the Sea of Japan (Nihonkai) in the Tōhoku region of Japan. The Nihonk ...

in the

city area. From this junction, the route follows a northerly course parallel to the

Sea of Japan The Sea of Japan is the marginal sea between the Japanese archipelago, Sakhalin, the Korean Peninsula, and the mainland of the Russian Far East. The Japanese archipelago separates the sea from the Pacific Ocean. Like the Mediterranean Sea, it h ...

to National Route 7 in Noshiro where the expressway meets a gap in its routing. The expressway resumes its course, heading northeast towards the Tōhoku Expressway near

Odate–Noshiro Airport is an airport in Kitaakita, Akita, Japan and is west of Ōdate at above sea level. It is also informally known as Akita North Airport (あきた北空港 ''Akita Kita Kūkō''). History Efforts to build an airport in northern Akita Prefectu ...

Kitaakita is a city located in Akita Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 31,504 in 14,021 households, and a population density of 27 persons per km². The total area of the city is . Geography Kitaakita is located in the mountain ...

. The Akita Expressway ends at a junction with the Tōhoku Expressway in the town of Kosaka. The sections between Hachiryū and Futatsui-Shirakami interchanges and Kanisawa Interchange and Kosaka Junction are toll-free; all other sections assess tolls based on distance traveled in the same manner as most other national expressways. The expressway was the first highway of its kind to employ a snow-melting system that stores heat in the expressway's embankments during the summer. The system is in place in Daisen outside of the Kyowa Tunnel. The heat is then released during heavy snowfall events to clear snow off the expressway.

Official designations

The entire route is signed as the Akita Expressway for consistency purposes, however two separate sections of the route are officially designated as the

Akita Sotokanjō Expressway is a Japanese name and may refer to: Places * 8182 Akita, a main-belt asteroid * Akita Castle, a Nara period fortified settlement in Akita, Japan * Akita Domain, also known as Kubota Domain, feudal domain in Edo period Japan * Akita, Kumamoto, ...

and Kotooka Noshiro Road (both bypasses of National Route 7). These sections are not classified as national expressways but rather as . *Kitakami JCT - Akita-kita IC : Tōhoku Ōdan Expressway Kamaishi Akita Route *Akita-kita IC - Shōwa-Ogahantō IC :

*Shōwa-Ogahantō IC - Kotooka-Moritake IC : Nihonkai Tōhoku Engan Expressway *Kotooka-Moritake IC - Futatsui-Shirakami IC : Kotooka Noshiro Road

History

Planning for an expressway between the cities of Kitakami and Akita began in 1982. The first section of this expressway was opened on 25 July 1991 after nine years of planning and construction that cost 1.158 trillion yen (about 1 billion US dollars). It was a section of highway that linked Akita to Yokote. By 1994 the expressway was linked to the Tōhoku Expressway in Kitakami following the opening of Kitakami Junction. The next major connection to the expressway was its linkage to the Nihonkai-Tōhoku Expressway at Kawabe Junction in Akita on 23 July 1997. An experiment was conducted by MLIT to determine what the effects of lifting tolls along the expressway north of the city of Akita would be. Immediately following the

2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami The occurred at 14:46 JST (05:46 UTC) on 11 March. The magnitude 9.0–9.1 (M) undersea megathrust earthquake had an epicenter in the Pacific Ocean, east of the Oshika Peninsula of the Tōhoku region, and lasted approximately six minutes ...

, the experiment was suspended to raise funds for the repairs of expressways in the Tōhoku region. By August 2011 the expressway had been extended in various stages all the way north from the city of Akita to Futatsui-Shirakami Interchange in Noshiro. In August 2011, following the toll-lifting experiment it was decided by MLIT that much of the aforementioned segment of the expressway, as well as any future segments built along the planned route, would be toll-free. On 30 November 2013, the expressway was linked to its northern terminus in Kosaka along the Tōhoku Expressway following the opening of a section of highway. On 13 December 2020, a section of the expressway opened in Kitaakita, extending the northern section of the expressway closer to the southern section.

Future

As of December 2020, the entirety of the Akita Expressway is open to traffic except for a section linking the cities of Noshiro and Kitaakita in northern Akita Prefecture. A section of this gap in the route is set to be completed by 2023, however there is no date scheduled for the total completion of the expressway.

List of interchanges and features

* SA -

service area Service area may refer to: * Rest area A rest area is a public facility located next to a large thoroughfare such as a motorway, expressway, or highway, at which drivers and passengers can rest, eat, or refuel without exiting onto secondary r ...

, PA -

parking area A parking lot (American English) or car park (British English), also known as a car lot, is a cleared area intended for parking vehicles. The term usually refers to an area dedicated only for parking, with a durable or semi-durable surface ...

, TB -

toll gate Toll Gate or Tollgate may refer to: * Toll gate, a barrier across a toll road or toll bridge that is lifted when the toll is paid Entertainment * "Tollgate" (Hale single) * ''The Toll-Gate'', a 1954 novel by Georgette Heyer * ''The Toll Gate'', ...

References

External links

*
East Nippon Expressway Company
{{Expressways of Japan Expressways in Japan Roads in Akita Prefecture Roads in Iwate Prefecture 1991 establishments in Japan