November 01, 2007 Press conference on the present status and future outlook of the Tokai-Hokuriku Expressway

(Moderator)

From now on, we will hold a press conference on the current status and future outlook of the Tokai-Hokuriku Expwy.

(Chairman)

Hello everyone. Thank you for joining us in your immediate contact.
Today, I would like to explain the contents that were to be announced by opening an extraordinary conference.

We have been working on the last unopened section of the Tokai-Hokuriku Expwy from the Hida Kiyomi IC to the Shirakawago IC with the goal of opening it at the end of March 2008, but an unexpected event occurred Now, however, we have no choice but to give up opening within the year. The current forecast for the opening of the Hida Kiyomi IC to the Shirakawago IC is around July 2008. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience caused to everyone in the Tokai and Hokuriku regions, as well as those who are looking forward to opening. In addition, we will announce the concrete opening date after confirming the progress of the construction in the future and when it is confirmed.
The main reason for the delay in opening the service is described in the handouts given out. I will let the person in charge explain the details later.

We have made a number of efforts to shorten the construction period as a measure against construction delays, but it was found that it is difficult to further shorten the process, so we announced today as soon as possible. We have decided to hold an extraordinary press conference to inform everyone. In order to meet the expectations of everyone who is looking forward to the opening of the road, we will continue to carry out the construction 24 hours a day, 24 hours a day, to build a safe and secure road and aim to open the road as soon as possible. Thank you for your understanding.
Now, I would like to explain the specific circumstances by Managing Executive Officer Inaba, President of Nagoya Regional Head Office.

(Regional Head Office length)

Let me explain.

First of all, this is the Hida tunnel, which is the second longest tunnel of 10.7km in Japan on the road. Initially, it was a TBM and a tunnel boring machine, but it was expected that tunnel excavation would be completed in about 5 years. However, due to difficult construction such as a large amount of spring water than expected and collapse in places with poor geology, the TBM may be deformed or buried, so excavation using the NATM method in some sections, etc. It will take about nine and a half years to complete. During this time, we have frequently reviewed the opening date.

(Showing the panel) By the way, this Hida tunnel is located 10.7km on the Toyama Tokai-Hokuriku Expressway side of Toyama prefecture. As you can see in the Large image, the route is as you can see. The geology of the tunnel is as shown in the figure below.
The Hida tunnel was penetrated by the main pit in January of this year, three months behind the plan of the year before last, when the opening of the tunnel was planned for the end of March 2008. At the time of the penetration in January, we planned to shorten this process by changing the construction method, etc., and make it within the year.
However, after the penetration, an unexpected collapse occurred near the penetration point. At the same time, it is on the Kawai side from the penetration point, but within the range of about 100 m, a deformation occurred where the mine swelled inward. This is the place where the penetration ceremony was held as of January. TBM has been dug from the Toyama side. There was a very bad geology, so I made a penetration in the form of an advanced tunnel. After that, I continued to excavate at TBM, but some transformations occurred along the way. We will explain it in the panel.
One is this "deformed cross section". This is the location. The deformation of the tunnel's ceiling dropped by about 7 cm, and the inner diameter was 10 cm both on the right and left, and the cross section of the tunnel was reduced by about 20 cm in total.
Also, the rock bolts, shotcrete, and H-shaped supporting structures that support them are also deformed. First of all, it is a transformation of H steel, but originally H steel must be in the blue line. It is pushed by force and is bent sideways like the red line. The shotcrete has large cracks. At the same time, a large amount of force is applied to the washer in the rock bolts placed near it. Some of the washers have been removed, or the rock bolts that have been hammered in have broken, and they are no longer in the desired state.
Also, it seems that the advanced tunnel was very powerful as the TBM approached it, but it seems that it collapsed and was crushed, so to speak. As a countermeasure method, first we call H steel repair for inner lining relation, re-spraying of shotcrete, and "additional bolts" for lock bolts, but we are increasing the number of bolts and responding. I will.
After that, at the place where it collapsed, cement milk was poured into the collapsed part to close it, and materials for reinforcement were poured into the ground, and when it settled down, it was dug again. Therefore, it takes about two months as a whole. This is the content of the deformation such as the inner wall near the penetration point after penetrating the main pit, written in ① of the distributed material.

Next, I will explain the contents of ②. This Hida tunnel has a NATM method and a TBM method. Since the TBM has a circular cross section, it holds a part called a ventilation pit that is required for road tunnels below. The tunnel dug by the NATM method does not have the ventilation part below. Therefore, it has a structure in which another tunnel for ventilation is installed side by side. Therefore, work to connect the NATM part and the part below the TBM is required. In the plan, we were designing to connect just that part with the part that caused this collapse. However, because of the poor geology, this is the situation, so considering the difficulty of the construction and the stability of the future, we decided that it was not appropriate to connect to this part and avoided that part, I put it off. This is 80m. This construction will take an extra one month.
Regarding how to recover from these delays, we will cover the situation by spraying as if fiber was put into concrete, precast the guard passage, and shorten the process by full day and night system. It was. I will explain these points.
The next construction after the main shaft penetrates and the ventilation shaft is connected is the emergency parking zone in the tunnel. This is a part where the car can be stopped in the event of an accident and the safety can be maintained, but this construction involves digging with TBM and then expanding. If you look at the materials, it is a situation that the part is a temporary steel segment that covers the part dug in a circle for the time being. Construction is required to take that segment and excavate it. The excavation is also difficult because we are considering the passage of cars, but first of all, I will explain the method of placing concrete in that part.
Normally, a steel round form called "Centre" is made, the form is fitted from the inside, and concrete is poured. However, this takes time because it is assembled and moved repeatedly. This time, we will stop using this method and use a method called "blasted concrete" that blows concrete off with air and sticks it to the wall, reinforcing it with fibers etc. while constructing instead of Centle and shortening the process Is one.
In addition, there is a guard passage in the corner for safety inspection in the tunnel. Below that are power lines, water supplies and communication lines. Up until now, the way to work is to make a waterway for the water in the tunnel, fill the part next to it with concrete, make a wall, put a lid on it, and the whole thing is done, but in this case 3 It takes time because you have to take steps. This time, I made the one thing and put it simply as a construction method. That is a photo of the material.
After that, many working machines, workers, simply put, many working parties are put in to shorten the process. In fact, after the excavation of the ventilation pit and the like I just finished, I wanted to put in a lot of work parties at the stage when the construction of this Large section was started.
Normally, when the tunnel penetrates, natural air flows inside the tunnel. Since this tunnel has a slope of 2%, there is a height difference of 200m between the wellheads. It is normal for air to flow due to the difference in height, but in the case of this tunnel, the wind flow was worse than originally expected, and there were days when air did not flow easily.
The reason why I would like to mention that is, although there is a picture of the construction situation of the Large part I mentioned earlier, it is not a big-scale blasting method, so I am cutting it with a machine. Therefore, there is a lot of dust. Also, the concrete spraying mentioned earlier is a work that involves dust. Therefore, if the air flow is not clean, the working environment of the working person cannot be maintained. It was a situation that I could not maintain a clean state sufficiently, as a result the air flow was weak and I could not ventilate well, so I tried to put in as much as possible, but I can not put the number of parties to the target, As a result, the two months of this transformation, the one month for the ventilation pit, and the last three months became irreversible as a process, and for that reason the abandonment of the originally planned opening within the year was abandoned. The situation has become unavoidable.
It's easy, but I've explained it.

(Moderator)

If you have any questions, thank you.

(Reporter)

As a result, how much is the overall delay?

(President)

It's about 3 months.

(Reporter)

Please tell us how much the project cost will increase from the initially planned project cost due to the delay in the construction period.

(Chairman)

We believe that it will be within the initial project cost.

(Reporter)

There is an image that it will cost extra if you are late, but where is it covered?

(Chairman)

We think that tariff revenue will decrease by about 500 million yen due to the delay in opening. On the other hand, since it will not be opened, management costs will be less than 300 million yen. In other words, we think the difference is about 200 million yen. This amount does not mean a big negative. The construction project cost itself, but I think this is within the range of expectations. On the other hand, we are continuing to reduce costs, so I think we can do something about it. Inaba, are there any supplements?

(President)

Yes, as I mentioned from the chairman, I have made various efforts to reduce costs. As a result, we think that the increase in construction cost can be covered in that part.

(Reporter)

It was a large amount of spring water than expected, but how much is expected and what is unexpected?

(President)

If you say the assumption, I think that it is about the normal amount of water. The amount of water here was about 70 tons per minute for the entire tunnel. Even now, it produces about 30 tons per minute. 70 tons per minute may be difficult to understand from the figures, but it is an extremely large amount that can supply water for a city of about 300,000 people, for example. At this point, there is an altitude difference of 1,000 meters between the road and the surface of the earth, but 600 meters of water pressure is applied. Usually, when we say high pressure, it is a fraction of this force, so it was an unprecedentedly strong pressure. Even now, 30 tons of water is produced every minute, which means that the amount of water was much larger than this.

(Reporter)

I think that the geology of the places you penetrated, including the amount of water, was investigated in advance, but did you have a clear view of the geology? It was easy to fall down, or I took measures in anticipation of the original plan, but it also fell down, or it wasn't. How about such a place?

(President)

Obviously, as we're talking about, we'll do some research before we drill the tunnel. However, the reality is that we cannot understand the details because it is a tunnel with a thickness of 1,000 meters above it. Therefore, in the case of this tunnel, we first work on a small tunnel called the advanced mine before excavating the main mine. While checking the situation in the tunnel, the biggest content I took as a preliminary survey. This point is also the penetration point of the advanced mine, but it was a place where the TBM of the advanced mine itself was crushed by very large pressure and could not move. Based on this, it took time to drain the water from the advanced mine and then work on the main mine. The water is very effective due to its effect, but the geology itself is very soft. The soft muddy state was sandwiched between the hard rocks, and as a result, I fell into the state I was talking about.

(Reporter)

I think that this postponement will have a considerable impact on the local community, but when did you first understand that it was likely to be postponed? And please tell me how the message was or will be transmitted to the local community.

(Chairman)

Due to the continuous difficult construction, the people involved in the company also worked really hard at the site. I myself visited the site several times, but when I entered the site about two weeks ago, I looked closely inside the tunnel and listened to the situation in detail, and everyone tried hard to keep the promise with the local people. I'm making an effort, but I wondered if this was the limit, and I think it might be difficult for management decisions. After returning, I decided to consult with the executives and discuss thoroughly, and decide to postpone it about a week ago. Now that we need to tell everyone as soon as possible, we have talked to local people such as prefectures and municipalities, and other related parties. There are a lot of important things that I thought about in the management of the company, but I think that the most important thing in terms of building a road is the quality of "safety." I decided to give top priority to the quality of "safety". "Delivery time" is also an important management point, but even with some sacrifice, we decided to give top priority to the quality of "safety". For people who are doing their best in the field, it's difficult to make weak sounds. It was a shame for me myself, but I decided that this was the limit in terms of management and made the decision I am doing now. Of course, I have talked with the locals for the past week or so as much as possible, but I don't think it's enough, so I will continue to talk sincerely with you since today's announcement. I think I want to do.

(Reporter)

Relatedly, two weeks ago, it was said that it was judged to be the limit by looking closely at the inside of the local tunnel, but before that it was very difficult to construct, so postponement etc. Isn't there any fact that you have been considering in-house? If so, please tell us when you started making such studies.

(Chairman)

I think that such an examination has been made all along. As it was originally mentioned in the first story, it was a huge and historic construction, so the original plan itself has been extended to three or four years. It was this time with that background. I think that every day was the struggle to keep the deadline that was decided, whether it was called "delivery date". Therefore, this is the first time that we have discussed this thoroughly at the meeting of management and decided the policy last week, but I think that we have been making all the efforts that the workplace and everyone in charge was thinking about it every day. I am.

(Reporter)

Please tell us what economic implications are possible due to the delay of about four months. I think it will have a big impact on tourism in particular.

(Chairman)

I don't think it will be easy to calculate using specific numbers, but I think that it will have some impact on both tourism and logistics, so I think it will open around July. However, I would like to open it as soon as possible if it can be accelerated so as to reduce the effect as much as possible. In the process, I would like to fully explain our situation for everyone involved.

(Reporter)

I wonder if the people in Toyama Prefecture, or those in Tokai Prefecture, including Gifu Prefecture, felt disappointed with this postponement.

(Chairman)

I think everyone received the same method. According to a survey by the Hokuriku Economic Federation, although it is a little old, there is also a research result that it has an advantage of 730 billion yen per year compared to 1999. In that sense, I think that the expectations of everyone in the three prefectures of Hokuriku were very strong in terms of the expectations expressed in the numbers. However, as you know, the Nagoya area is a region with a very shortage of manpower, and thanks to that, this area is also developing economically. If you do so, the desire to strengthen the bond with the three Hokuriku prefectures and develop economic activities more broadly is also very strong in the Tokai region, so it is not possible to express them in numbers, at least those that do not have numbers. However, I think the expectations were high.

(Reporter)

Looking at the materials, it is a delay of 3 months, but in contrast to that, the opening is around July. Is it safe to think of the beginning of July as the beginning or end of July?

(Chairman)

There are uncertainties in this, and there is one problem with snow in winter. Therefore, the construction will be affected significantly. Since all other tunnels are open, I think that the construction environment is better than it was in the past in terms of that point, but after all there is a lot of snow, and there are various other conditions. It's a difficult situation to determine. So, although I may not be able to make a clear promise, I would like to try to talk about the fact that it will be opened by next spring.

(Reporter)

I heard that I was able to explain to the local people during the past week, but specifically, what kind of people, for example where the mayor, which economic group you are, could you please tell me. Also, please tell us what kind of reaction you have made.

(Chairman)

After all, from the foot of the foot, are the chiefs of Shirakawa Village, Takayama City, and Hida City. Then it started with places like the Chamber of Commerce, and now it's the prefecture. Governor of the prefecture. And, of course, I have visited the ministry and explained to you, because the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, or the minister in charge is the Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism. There are other politicians from the local area, so I also notified them. There are many different nuances, but in order to cherish the quality of "safety" and to do it firmly, it is unavoidable that the delay of the construction period is unavoidable, so I feel so disappointed. However, I think that you may have gained an understanding of its basic stance.

(Reporter)

There was talk of the Chamber of Commerce as an economic group, but what was the reaction here?

(Chairman)

After all it was the same feeling. As an economic organization, I will talk with the chairman of the Chubu Economic Federation and the Hokuriku Economic Federation.

(Reporter)

Last but not least, I heard that something unexpected happened this time, but the possibility that more unexpected things will happen in the future is a problem of possibility, which is very likely to happen. I don't think "it won't happen", but what do you think about the possibility that such a situation will occur in the future as far as you can tell?

(Chairman)

To be honest, there are all sorts of unexpected things that can happen. A big earthquake. I think it's better to attach such a sudden item, "Large," but I think that the date around July will be protected unless such a major accident occurs.

(Reporter)

Although there is a part that overlaps with the current story, it is said that measures were taken such as the deflection part, but basically it is OK to accept that the measures have been completed and the safety after opening in the future It is related, but even if you have taken measures, please tell us further about whether, for example, there will be flexure, whether there is a possibility that you will be watching the progress, or not that kind of thing.

(President)

As for the place where the deformation occurred, as I explained earlier, I made a plan for countermeasures. That's exactly what we're doing. After that, wait a while and watch the transition. Make sure that the situation is stable before proceeding to the next step. In this case, the tunnel will be completed by placing the final concrete, but at that stage, as I mentioned earlier, it will be work after confirming that the situation has calmed down. Therefore, we believe that future changes will not occur.

(Reporter)

Do you have any plans to check something after opening?

(President)

Our mission is to just use the road for everyone without any problems. As we continue to manage on a day-to-day basis, we will keep a record of the locations where these kinds of things occur, so we will carefully inspect them. I think it will be more of an observation, rather than a particular one.

(Reporter)

I explained to the locals earlier that I was traveling to Shirakawa, Takayama, Hida, the Chamber of Commerce, the prefectural governor, the nation of Tokyo, and the politicians, but it was all shared by the chairman. Could you please tell me about that?

(Chairman)

I couldn't physically go around by myself, so I divided myself between the president and the managing director. The locals were led by Inaba Regional Head Office president.

(Moderator)

This is the end of today's press conference. Thank you very much.

(Chairman)

Thank you very much.