By TOMOYOSHI KUBO/ Staff Writer
May 22, 2024 at 07:00 JST
WAJIMA, Ishikawa Prefecture--A temporary bypass has opened on a coastal portion uplifted by the magnitude-7.6 Noto Peninsula earthquake in Ishikawa Prefecture on Jan. 1.
The detour that opened around noon on May 2 is solely for emergency responders and vehicles driven by residents of communities in and around this hard-hit city.
Officials of the land ministry’s Noto Reconstruction Office said the road was built to bypass a section of National Highway Route 249 rendered unusable by a landslide.
The section is located close to the Shiroyone Senmaida terraced rice paddies, a central government-designated site of scenic beauty.
The new, single-lane road is 5 meters wide and 430 meters long.
A layby area was also built nearby for motorists to stop to allow oncoming traffic to pass.
The makeshift road restored direct links between Najimi and other districts of Wajima, which had been left isolated by the quake, and downtown Wajima. It will be closed to traffic, however, if any future seismic activity is observed, as well as during heavy rain and when high waves lash the coast.
The land ministry is seeking to restore that section of the national highway as soon as possible, along with four other sites of National Highway 249 that collapsed.
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A temporary bypass that opened on an elevated coastal portion of National Highway Route 249 in Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, as seen from an Asahi Shimbun helicopter on May 2 (Kenta Sujino)
