A grassroots campaign has pushed Japanese city and national authorities to remove a hastily built overpass that looms over an iconic bridge.
The present Nihonbashi Bridge, which crosses the river of the same name in the Chuo business district of Tokyo, was built in 1911 on the site of a structure dating back to 1603. This crossing was the point from which all distances in Japan were measured, and it once had a view to Mount Fuji that features in the work of artists like Hokusai and Hiroshige.
In the early 1960s, an expressway was built over the Nihonbashi Bridge, obscuring and darkening it. A local preservation group, Meikyo Nihonbashi Hozonkai, started organising community events to draw attention to the site and relieve the gloom. An earthquake in 2011 led the national government to re-think Japan’s ageing infrastructure and the preservation group saw their opportunity. They delivered to parliament a petition of 442,000 handwritten signatures calling for a change to the site.
Nihonbashi Bridge, Tokyo, is made gloomy by a 1960s overpass. Credit: suzumenonamida, CC 2.0. via Flickr
Subsequently, the local, regional and national governments agreed a US$2.2 billion project to redevelop the neighbourhood into a pedestrian friendly riverside area, with the road on the overpass diverted to a tunnel under the river. Work has already started, and the unsightly overpass will be banished for good in 2040.
