, image = File:Hakkōda Tunnel western portal.jpg , image_size = 250 , caption = The western portal of the Hakkōda Tunnel , line =

Tōhoku Shinkansen The is a Japanese high-speed Shinkansen rail line, connecting Tokyo with Aomori in Aomori Prefecture in a route length of , making it Japan's longest Shinkansen line. It runs through the more sparsely populated Tōhoku region of Japan's main is ...

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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 ...

(

Aomori Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan in the Tōhoku region. The prefecture's capital, largest city, and namesake is the city of Aomori. Aomori is the northernmost prefecture on Japan's main island, Honshu, and is bordered by the Pacific Ocean to the east, ...

) , coordinates = , system =

Shinkansen The , colloquially known in English as the bullet train, is a network of high-speed railway lines in Japan. Initially, it was built to connect distant Japanese regions with Tokyo, the capital, to aid economic growth and development. Beyond l ...

, status = , crosses =

Hakkōda Mountains The are an active volcanic complex in south-central Aomori Prefecture, Japan, in Towada-Hachimantai National Park. Often called or simply , the mountains are collectively listed as one of the 100 Famous Japanese Mountains. Its highest peak, ...

, start =

Shichinohe is a town located in Aomori Prefecture, Japan. , the town had an estimated population of 15,286, and a population density of 45 persons per km2, in 6,797 households. The total area of the town is . Geography Shichinohe is in central Aomori Pref ...

, end =

Aomori is the capital city of Aomori Prefecture, in the Tōhoku region of Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 278,964 in 136,457 households, and a population density of 340 people per square kilometer spread over the city's total area of ...

, stations = , startwork = August 1998 , opened = 19 November 2010 , closed = , owner =

JR East The is a major passenger railway company in Japan and is the largest of the seven Japan Railways Group companies. The company name is officially abbreviated as JR-EAST or JR East in English, and as in Japanese. The company's headquarters are ...

, operator = , traffic = Shinkansen , character = Passenger , length = , notrack = 1

double-track A double-track railway usually involves running one track in each direction, compared to a single-track railway where trains in both directions share the same track. Overview In the earliest days of railways in the United Kingdom, most li ...

tube , gauge = , el = 25 kV AC, 50 Hz, overhead catenary , speed = Maximum speed: , hielevation = , lowelevation = , height = , grade = max 10 ‰ , map = The is a

railway tunnel Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in Track (rail transport), tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the ...

located in central

, 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 ...

. It passes through the Hakkōda mountain range and links the town of

with the city of

. The Hakkōda Tunnel is part of the northern section of the

, located between Shichinohe-Towada and

Shin Aomori is a Japanese actor, voice actor and narrator from Aomori Prefecture. Previously affiliated with Tokyo Actor's Consumer's Cooperative Society and Sigma Seven, he is attached to Aoni Production. His birth name is . With his distinctive grim vo ...

stations.

Description

The Hakkōda Tunnel, with a length of is the third longest double-tracked, single-tube terrestrial railway tunnel in the world and the longest terrestrial railway tunnel in Japan, though the Oshima Tunnel in southern Hokkaido is set to surpass it upon its planned completion in 2031. It is also the first rail route to pass through the

. The east portal of the tunnel lies from Shichinohe-Towada Station in Shichinohe. From there the tunnel runs parallel to the

Michinoku Toll Road The Michinoku Toll Road (みちのく有料道路 ''Michinoku Yūryōdōro'') is a two-lane toll road in Aomori Prefecture connecting the cities Aomori and Hachinohe via Shichinohe. It serves as an alternative to Japan National Route 4, bypassing ...

, an older limited-access road that travels across the northern Hakkōda Mountains by a series of long tunnels. The west portal of the tunnel lies at the eastern bank of the Komagome River in Aomori. The completion of the tunnel and the subsequent extension of the Tōhoku Shinkansen to Aomori resulted in a decrease in the length of a trip from Tokyo to Aomori by 40 minutes and the elimination of the ''

Tsugaru Tsugaru (津軽) may refer to: * Tsugaru, Aomori, a city of Aomori Prefecture, Japan * Tsugaru Peninsula * Tsugaru Strait, between Honshū and Hokkaidō ** Tsugaru Kaikyō Ferry, a ferry crossing this strait * Tsugaru-jamisen, a traditional style of ...

'' express train between Hachinohe and Aomori.

History

Background

The Hakkōda Mountains have divided what is now

since the

Edo period The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional '' daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was characteriz ...

. The lands to the east of the mountains were controlled by the

Nanbu clan The was a Japanese samurai clan who ruled most of northeastern Honshū in the Tōhoku region of Japan for over 700 years, from the Kamakura period through the Meiji Restoration of 1868. The Nanbu claimed descent from the Seiwa Genji of Kai Pr ...

and the lands to the west were controlled by the

Tsugaru clan The was a Japanese samurai clan who ruled the northwestern half of what is now Aomori Prefecture in the Tōhoku region of Japan under the Edo period Tokugawa shogunate. The Tsugaru were ''daimyō'' of Hirosaki Domain and its semi-subsidiary, Ku ...

. After the

Meiji Restoration The , referred to at the time as the , and also known as the Meiji Renovation, Revolution, Regeneration, Reform, or Renewal, was a political event that restored practical imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Although there were ...

, their lands were reorganized into Aomori Prefecture with the city of

as its capital. However, no direct land route was available between and the former center of the Nanbu's

Hachinohe Domain was a '' tozama'' feudal domain of Edo period Japan It is located in Mutsu Province, in northern Honshū. The domain was centered at Hachinohe Castle, located in the center of what is now the city of Hachinohe in Aomori Prefecture. History O ...

Hachinohe is a city located in Aomori Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 221,459, and a population density of 725 persons per km2 in 96,092 households, making it Aomori Prefecture's second largest city by population. The city h ...

because of the mountains. The Edo era

Ōshū Kaidō The was one of the five routes of the Edo period. It was built to connect Edo (modern-day Tokyo) with Mutsu Province and the present-day city of Shirakawa, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan. It was established by Tokugawa Ieyasu for government of ...

instead went north around the mountain range, closely following the rocky coast in many places, such as Asamushi Onsen. When the

Tōhoku Main Line The Tōhoku Main Line ( ja, 東北本線, ) is a long railway line in Japan operated by the East Japan Railway Company (JR East). The line starts from Tokyo Station in Chiyoda, Tokyo and passes through such cities as Saitama, Utsunomiya, Fukush ...

was built to connect Aomori to Tokyo, the same indirect path was utilized. Efforts were still made to cross the Hakkōda Mountains. In an exercise to prepare for the destruction of the railway during a war with the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

, the

Hakkōda Mountains incident The occurred on January 23, 1902, when a group of Imperial Japanese Army soldiers became lost in a blizzard on the Hakkōda Mountains in Aomori Prefecture in northern Honshu, Japan, en route to Tashiro Hot Spring located in the Hakkōda Mountain ...

occurred when 199 soldiers of the

Imperial Japanese Army The was the official ground-based armed force of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945. It was controlled by the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office and the Ministry of the Army, both of which were nominally subordinate to the Emperor o ...

got lost and died, just south of where the tunnel now lies. The first direct connection between Aomori and Hachinohe, the

, was completed on 13 November 1980. The toll road utilized many tunnels to cross the Hakkōda Mountains and set the precedent for a high-speed rail route to supplement it and the indirect Tōhoku Main Line.

Construction

Preliminary work on the tunnel began in August 1998, with ground broken in June 1999. On its breakthrough on 27 February 2005, it surpassed the Iwate-Ichinohe Tunnel of the same Tōhoku Shinkansen to become the world's longest terrestrial (land-based) tunnel. This record was surpassed only two months later by the

Lötschberg Base Tunnel , line = Lötschberg Line , location = Traversing the Bernese Alps in Switzerland , coordinates = – , system = BLS, SBB CFF FFS , status = , start = Frutigen, canton of Bern, , end = Raro ...

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

, and in turn by the

Gotthard Base Tunnel , rm, Tunnel da basa dal Sogn Gottard , image = 20141120 gotthard-basistunnel02-wikipedia-hannes-ortlieb.jpg , image_size = 250 , caption = Turnout at Faido multifunction station , line = Gotthard Line , location = Switzerland (Uri, Grisons and ...

when it opened in 2016. However, the Lötschberg Base Tunnel has only a single track for most of its length, while the Gotthard Base Tunnel has two single-track tubes, and therefore the Hakkōda Tunnel remains the longest double-tracked, single-tube terrestrial railway tunnel in the world.

Opening

Test runs of the Shinkansen in the tunnel commenced on 19 November 2010, an emergency evacuation of the train in the tunnel was exercised. JR East's Tōhoku Shinkansen officially began services through the tunnel between Shichinohe-Towada Station and Shin-Aomori Station on 4 December 2010.

References

Bibliography

External links

Kajima Corporation site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hakkoda Tunnel Railway tunnels in Japan Tōhoku Shinkansen Buildings and structures in Aomori Prefecture Tunnels completed in 2010 Transport in Aomori Prefecture