The is a railway tunnel located in central

Aomori Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan in the Tōhoku region. The prefecture's capital, largest city, and namesake is the city of Aomori (city), Aomori. Aomori is the northernmost prefecture on Japan's main island, Honshu, and is border ...

, 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 (): Akita, Aomori, Fukushima, Iwate, Miyagi, and Yamagata. Tōhoku retains ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. It passes through the Hakkōda mountain range and links the town of Shichinohe with the city of Aomori. The Hakkōda Tunnel is part of the northern section of the Tōhoku Shinkansen, located between Shichinohe-Towada and Shin Aomori 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

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, M ...

. 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 expressway, two-lane toll road in Aomori Prefecture connecting the cities Aomori, Aomori, Aomori and Hachinohe, Aomori, Hachinohe via Shichinohe, Aomori, Sh ...

, 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'' express train between Hachinohe and Aomori.

History

Background

The Hakkōda Mountains have divided what is now

since the

Edo period The , also known as the , is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional ''daimyo'', or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengok ...

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

Nanbu clan The was a Japanese clan, 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 Ge ...

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, ...

. 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 Imperial House of Japan, imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Althoug ...

, their lands were reorganized into Aomori Prefecture with the city of Aomori as its capital. However, no direct land route was available between and the former center of the Nanbu's Hachinohe Domain, Hachinohe because of the mountains. The Edo era Ōshū Kaidō 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 () is a 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, Saitama, Saitama, Utsunomiya, Tochigi, Uts ...

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 that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

, the Hakkōda Mountains incident occurred when 199 soldiers of the

Imperial Japanese Army The Imperial Japanese Army (IJA; , ''Dai-Nippon Teikoku Rikugun'', "Army of the Greater Japanese Empire") was the principal ground force of the Empire of Japan from 1871 to 1945. It played a central role in Japan’s rapid modernization during th ...

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 in

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

, and in turn by the Gotthard Base Tunnel 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 (city) Tunnels completed in 2010 Transport in Aomori (city) Shichinohe, Aomori Tunnels in Aomori Prefecture