Wednesday, February 06, 2013
Tokyo’s experience building an overhead rail line
by Larry Geller
I’ve written about those who have the technology and those (we) who don’t. This afternoon I discovered a website originating in Tokyo which covers construction, architecture and some interesting aspects of Japan, its people and its language and art. One article (see snip below) described the construction of the Nippori Toneri Liner (sic) which is an overhead train line resembling in some ways the rail line that Honolulu looks like it will be building.
Will our experience be like this?
One of the most staggering facts is not only that this thing was built in the middle of a city as dense as Tokyo, but that during the years of construction traffic was not interrupted at all – the roads remained open and everything continued as if normal while these giant concrete pedestals were appearing and rail lines were built above our heads. Unbelievably, everything was still clean – no unsightly piles of dirt, just neat and compact small cordons within which cranes, construction materials and everything necessary was meticulously ordered and arranged as neatly as the circuitry on a computer chip.
If some dirt encroached onto the road, a uniformed worker would rush out with water and brush and bring it back to spotlessly clean.
[japangasm, An Introduction To… Japanese Roadwork, 7/9/2010]
Click the link and explore japangasm.
Absolutely fascinating, but I wouldn't want to live or visit where there is so much congestion!
: February 7, 2013 at 7:52:00 AM HST I agree with you now, but while living there, congestion was just one part of the picture, and there were other compensations. Now, I don't know what it would be like to go back and do it again. One can get used to breathing air that you can't see, etc.
My husband and I enjoyed our visit in 1967, riding the bullet train from Kyoto to Toyko...etc.
: February 8, 2013 at 11:13:00 AM HST << Home
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