Japan ordered a nationwide inspection of 49 tunnels after the collapse of a highway tunnel near Mt. Fuji killed nine people and crushed cars with almost 400 tons of concrete in the nation's worst tunnel disaster in 16 years.
The Ministry of Transport ordered the inspections to be conducted by 5 p.m. on Dec. 12, according to a statement on the ministry's website. About 270 concrete slabs, each weighing 1.4 tons, fell from the ceiling of the Sasago tunnel on the Chuo expressway about 85 kilometres west of Tokyo early Sunday morning.
Japan's highway network includes more than 1,500 tunnels, with a quarter of them more than 30 years old, according to the Transport Ministry. The four-kilometre Sasago tunnel, which was built in 1976, may have collapsed because of age or seismic activity, according to Central Nippon Expressway Co., which operates the toll road. ...more
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