About falling interior plate of Tohoku Expressway Sakanashi tunnel

NEXCO EAST Tohoku Regional Head Office (Aoba Ward, Sendai City) Tohoku Expressway Sakanashi Tunnel (Kazuno-gun, Akita Prefecture) In Kozuka Town (Kazuno Gunko Sakamachi), the interior plate of the tunnel dropped onto the Expressway main line, causing an accident in which a passenger's car passed over. No one was injured due to this.

We take this situation seriously and carry out an emergency inspection of the Sakanashi tunnel.

1 History of discovery

At around 10:30 on Thursday, August 23, at the Tohoku Expressway Kosaka parking area (In-bound line), the customer asked the Akita Prefectural Police Headquarters Expressway Traffic Police Corp. We were told that we had fallen on a fallen object while passing through a tunnel, and at around 11:06 our group employees conducted a site check and discovered the fact that the interior board had fallen.

2 Occurrence location

Tohoku Expressway In-bound Line Sakanashi Tunnel (Opening date: July 30, 1986)
(Between Kosaka Interchange (IC) and Ikariseki IC)
Destination name: Kosaka Town, Kazuno County, Akita Prefecture

3 Interior plate that had dropped

2420mm×1210mm×4mm 1 piece Weight approx. 29kg
*The interior plate is a panel to improve the visual environment inside the tunnel.

4 Cause of fall

Currently under investigation

5 Last inspection date of the relevant part

May 10, 2012 No abnormality (visual inspection)

6 Future action

【Location map】

[Situation photo]