Inner Circular Route Explained

Country:JPN
Shuto Expressway Inner Circular Route
首都高速都心環状線
Map Custom:yes
Map Notes:The Inner Circular Route highlighted in red
Maint:Metropolitan Expressway Company Limited
Length Km:14.8
Established:1962
Beltway City:Tokyo
Junction:

    The, signed as Route C1, is one of the routes of the Shuto Expressway system serving the central part of the Greater Tokyo Area. The route is a complete loop around the central Tokyo wards of Chiyoda, Chūō, and Minato, with a total length of 14.8km (09.2miles). In addition to serving areas of central Tokyo, the Inner Circular Route also serves as the origin of the radial routes of the Shuto Expressway. A section of the expressway is built above the Shibuya River.

    History

    The expressway was built between 1962 and 1967, partly in preparation for the 1964 Summer Olympics. In 2009, Tokyo private industries proposed funding a project to dismantle the elevated expressway and put them underground.[1]

    In May 2020, the Shuto Expressway Company received approval for plans to relocate 1.8 kilometers of the expressway underground between Kandabashi and Edobashi Junctions, in the area where the Nihonbashi Bridge is located.[2] Construction will commence with the permanent closure of the Edobashi and Gofukubashi entrance and exit ramps on 10 May 2021.[3] [4] Construction is expected to be completed in fiscal year 2040.[4]

    List of interchanges

    List of interchanges ordered clockwise beginning with Edobashi Junction. The entire expressway is in Tokyo.

    Notes and References

    1. News: Keisuke Okada. Push to replace Tokyo's aging expressways with tunnel routes revived. 3. The Japan Times. 17 March 2012. 20 July 2020.
    2. 首都高速道路日本橋区間の地下化事業の都市計画事業認可について. The Gofukubashi and Edobashi ramps on the downtown loop line will be abolished at midnight on 10 May 2021 (Monday).. Shuto Expressway. 21 May 2020. 16 March 2021. ja.
    3. 都心環状線 呉服橋出入口・江戸橋出入口を2021年5月10日(月)午前0時に廃止します. The Gofukubashi and Edobashi ramps on the downtown loop line will be abolished at midnight on 10 May 2021 (Monday).. Shuto Expressway. 26 January 2021. 16 March 2021. ja.
    4. News: 首都高、2021年5月10日に呉服橋・江戸橋出入口を廃止. 8 February 2021. news.yahoo.co.jp. Yahoo! News (Japan). 16 March 2021. ja. 8 February 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210208055346/https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/dac7a5bfb0a503a95d4797ef42e7a5815a67c09a. dead.