Photo/Illutration The E7 series model bullet train that runs on the Hokuriku Shinkansen Line (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

The opening of an extension to the Hokuriku Shinkansen Line between Kanazawa and Tsuruga stations is expected to be postponed by more than a year due to cracks uncovered in a key tunnel, sources said Nov. 10.

It was originally planned to open the route in spring 2023, but transport ministry sources said that this would be no longer possible.

Inspectors found cracks in the 5.5-kilometer-long Kaga tunnel that borders Ishikawa and Fukui prefectures.

The ministry has yet to come up with an estimate for when the repair work will finish. Construction costs are expected to soar.

“I know that the construction schedule and costs are in a very tough spot,” transport minister Kazuyoshi Akaba said at a news conference after the Cabinet met on Nov. 10. “I would like to show you the details once I finish a thorough review.

The ministry explained its estimate at a Liberal Democratic Party meeting on Nov. 11.

Construction on the section between Kanazawa, the capital of Ishikawa Prefecture, and Tsuruga, in Fukui Prefecture, was approved to start in 2012. The initial opening was originally slated for spring 2026, but in January 2015 the prime minister’s office and the ruling party urged the transport ministry to push up the date.

The schedule was then moved up by three years.

But in March of this year it was discovered that soil expansion had created cracks in the Kaga tunnel, which was completed in 2019.

The ministry grappled to project when the additional repairs would be completed, but was unable to, adding to its concerns about a delay.

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