No. 867: Linear Chuo Shinkansen connects Tokyo and Osaka in about one hour in 2045 (January 6, 2015)

Technology:

Central Japan Railway’s huge project to travel 286 km between Tokyo and Nagoya in 40 minutes in 2027 and 438 km between Tokyo and Osaka in one hour and seven minutes in 2045 started last December. The total cost of this project is 9 trillion yen. The Linear Chuo Shinkansen adopted the superconductive system for the first time in the world. The maximum speed reaches 500 km/h. Because tunnels accounts for 86% of the Linear Chuo Shinkansen line between Tokyo and Nagoya, various high-tech companies are advancing their tunnel-related technologies to complete the line on schedule.

 Enjoy the world of 500 km/h

Koken Boring Machine is a maker of boring machines used for geological research. The mountainous region through which the line travel has lots of high mountains, and it is hard to drill a hole for geological research vertically. Koken’s technology to drill horizontally is vital in this region. The company is developing a technology for conducting survey 1 km ahead, while the current technology allows survey only 200-300 m ahead. It aims to establish a technology to control the location of an iron pole 1 km ahead precisely.

The shield method is indispensable to the engineering work in the urban area because it is hardly possible to use dynamite. Obayashi developed a machine that can drill 25% faster than the conventional model in alliance with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Mechatronics Systems. The new machine drills 500 m per month, two times faster than the speed 20 years ago. Concurrently, Nippon Sharyo and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries are trying to decrease the level of quake during traveling of the vehicle they jointly developed to the quake of the latest Shinkansen vehicle N-700A. Tunnel construction will start in full swing in 2016. 

Shinkansen vehicle N-700A