The is a partially tolled expressway in

Iburi Subprefecture is a subprefecture of Hokkaido Prefecture, Japan. Geography Located in south-central Hokkaido, Iburi stretches East-West and North-South. Iburi covers an area of . Iburi borders Oshima Subprefecture to the West, Shiribeshi, Ishikari, an ...

and

Hidaka Subprefecture is a subprefecture of Hokkaido Prefecture, Japan. The west side of the Hidaka mountains occupies most of the area. Hidaka is sparsely populated and has many of Hokkaido's natural resources. The governmental office is located in Urakawa. ...

Hokkaido is the list of islands of Japan by area, second-largest island of Japan and comprises the largest and northernmost prefectures of Japan, prefecture, making up its own list of regions of Japan, region. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaidō fr ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. The expressway connects Hidaka to the

Dō-Ō Expressway The is a national expressway in Hokkaido, Japan. It is owned and operated by East Nippon Expressway Company. Naming The road is named the Dō-Ō Expressway ( "Central Hokkaidō Expressway") in Japanese; however, it's also known as the Hokkaid ...

. It is owned and operated by partially by the

East Nippon Expressway Company The , abbreviated as , is one of the main operators of expressways and toll roads in Japan. It is headquartered in Kasumigaseki, Chiyoda, Tokyo. The company was established on October 1, 2005 as a result of the privatization of Japan Highway P ...

and the

Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism The , abbreviated MLIT, is a ministry of the Japanese government.国土交通省設置法

(MLIT). It is signed as an auxiliary route of National Route 235 as well as E63 under their "2016 Proposal for Realization of Expressway Numbering.

Naming

The name Hidaka is derived from the

province A province is an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire, Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

of the same name established in 1869, which in turn was named after an unknown country "in the Eastern wilds" called Hitakami in the ''

Nihonshoki The or , sometimes translated as ''The Chronicles of Japan'', is the second-oldest book of classical Japanese history. It is more elaborate and detailed than the , the oldest, and has proven to be an important tool for historians and archaeol ...

'', a history book written in 720. There is no direct connection between the Hitakami of the ''Nihonshoki'' and the modern Hidaka Subprefecture.

Route description

Lane configuration

History

The first section of the Hidaka Expressway to open was a -long section between the western terminus at the Dō-Ō Expressway in Tomakomai and Atsuma in 1998. In consideration of the effects of the

2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami On 11 March 2011, at 14:46:24 Japan Standard Time, JST (05:46:24 UTC), a 9.0–9.1 Submarine earthquake, undersea megathrust earthquake occurred in the Pacific Ocean, east of the Oshika Peninsula of the Tōhoku region. It lasted approx ...

, it was decided by MLIT that future sections of the expressway should follow a path further inland to avoid inundation by a tsunami. This decision has delayed further construction of the expressway. The expressway was temporarily closed after being damaged by the

2018 Hokkaido Eastern Iburi earthquake An earthquake measuring 6.6 on the moment magnitude scale struck Iburi Subprefecture in southern Hokkaido, Japan, on 6 September 2018 at 3:08 a.m. JST. The earthquake's epicenter was near Tomakomai and occurred at a depth of . The Japan ...

Future

Construction of the expressway is to be continued east to the town of

Urakawa is a List of towns in Japan, town located in Hidaka Subprefecture, Hokkaido, Japan. As of 1 October 2020, the town has an estimated population of 12,074 and a population density, density of 17 persons per km2. The total area is 694.24 km2. ...

on the southeastern point of the island of Hokkaido.

Junction list

The entire expressway is in

References

{{East Nippon Expressway Company Expressways in Japan Roads in Hokkaido 1998 establishments in Japan