Tokyo Bay Aqua-Line

Tokyo Bay Aqua-Line 東京湾アクアライン
Tokyo Bay Aqua-Line (bridge section) Tokyo Bay Aqua-Line (bridge section)
Coordinates
Carries	4 lanes of National Route 409
Crosses	Tokyo Bay
Locale	Kisarazu, Chiba  and Umihotaru Island
Other name(s)	Trans-Tokyo Bay Highway
Characteristics
Design	Steel box girder bridge with orthotropic deck Bored shield tunnel Artificial islands
Total length	bridge: 4,384 metres (14,383 ft) tunnel: 9,600 metres (31,496 ft)
Width	22.9 metres (75 ft)
Longest span	240 metres (787 ft)
Piers in water	42
Clearance below	29 metres (95 ft)
History
Fabrication by	bridge: Yokogawa Bridge Corp. and JFE Engineering tunnel:
Construction begin	1989
Construction cost	¥1.4 trillion
Opened	18 December 1997 (1997-12-18)
Tokyo Bay Aqua-Line is located in Tokyo Bay and Bōsō Peninsula Tokyo Bay Aqua-Line Location in Tokyo Bay and Bōsō Peninsula

Tokyo Bay Tunnel

Umihotaru, where bridge transitions to tunnel Umihotaru, where bridge transitions to tunnel
Overview
Status	2 in use 1 planned
Start	Umihotaru Island
End	Ukishima, Kawasaki, Kanagawa
Technical
Construction	Taisei
Number of lanes	2 (unidirectional) in each of 2 tunnels
Highest elevation	sea level
Lowest elevation	−45 metres (−148 ft)
Width	14.1 metres (46 ft) OD 11.9 metres (39 ft) ID 10.5 metres (34 ft) roadway
Grade	4%

File:Tokyobay-aqualine-jan7-2015.ogv

(video) Tokyo Bay Aqua-Line and Umihotaru Parking Lot seen from the sky, 2015.

The Tokyo Bay Aqua-Line (東京湾アクアライン, Tōkyō-wan Akua-rain), also known as the Trans-Tokyo Bay Highway, is a bridge–tunnel combination across Tokyo Bay in Japan. It connects the city of Kawasaki in Kanagawa Prefecture with the city of Kisarazu in Chiba Prefecture, and forms part of National Route 409. With an overall length of 14 km, it includes a 4.4 km bridge and 9.6 km tunnel underneath the bay—the fourth-longest underwater tunnel in the world.

Overview

File:Umihotaru200508-1.jpg

Umihotaru

File:Thetowerofwind-jan7-2015.jpg

The Tower of Wind, 2015

At the bridge–tunnel crossover point, there is an artificial island called Umihotaru (海ほたる, Umi-hotaru, literally meaning "sea firefly") with a rest area consisting of restaurants, shops and amusement facilities. Air is supplied to the tunnel by a distinctive tower in the middle of the tunnel, called the Kaze no Tō (風の塔, "the tower of wind"), which uses the bay's almost-constant winds as a power source.

The road opened on December 18, 1997 after 23 years of planning and 9 years of construction at a cost of 1.44 trillion yen (11.2 billion USD at the time of opening).

The Tokyo Bay Aqua-Line reduced the drive between Chiba and Kanagawa, two important industrial regions, from 90 to 15 minutes, and also contributed to cutting the travel time to the sea leisure area in the southern part of the Bōsō Peninsula from Tokyo and Kanagawa. Before the tunnel opened, one had to drive around about 100 km along the shores of Tokyo Bay and pass through downtown Tokyo.

One goal expressed during the planning of the Aqua-Line was to reduce the traffic through downtown Tokyo, but as the highway toll is quite high, the reduction in Tokyo traffic has not been as great as expected.

Many highway bus services now use the Tokyo Bay Aqua-Line, including lines from Tokyo Station, Yokohama Station and Haneda Airport to Kisarazu, Kimitsu, Kamogawa, Katsuura and Tateyama.

Tolls

The cash toll for a single trip on the Aqua-Line is ¥3000 for ordinary-size cars (¥2400 for kei cars); however, using the ETC (electronic toll collection) system, the fare is ¥2320 (¥1860 for kei cars). The ETC toll is reduced to ¥1000 on Saturdays, Sundays and Holidays. In general, tolls for usage of the Aqua-Line in either direction are collected at the mainline toll plaza on the Kisarazu end.

Toll table of Tokyo-bay Aqua Line
(Kawasaki-Ukishima Junction – Kisarazu-Kaneda Interchange)

Type of car	Toll	ETC Aqua-Line Special discount	ETC Pilot Test discount (from July2009)
Normal cars	3,000JPY	2,320JPY	800JPY
Midsize cars	3,600JPY	2,780JPY	960JPY
Large cars	4,950JPY	3,830JPY	1,320JPY
Specific large cars	8,250JPY	6,380JPY	2,200JPY
Kei-cars and motorcycles	2,400JPY	1,860JPY	640JPY

See also

• List of bridge–tunnels
• Chesapeake Bay Bridge–Tunnel
• Busan–Geoje Fixed Link

External links

• Japan Highways site (in Japanese)
• NEXCO East's info regarding U-turns at Umi-hotaru (in Japanese)
• Trans-Tokyo Bay Highway at Structurae. Retrieved on 6 March 2015.
• Tokyo Bay Aqualine at Structurae. Retrieved on 6 March 2015.
• Tokyo Bay Aqualine Bridge at Structurae. Retrieved on 6 March 2015.
• Tokyo Bay Aqualine Tunnel at Structurae. Retrieved on 6 March 2015.