The government hopes to alleviate a bottleneck in reconstruction work across Japan's disaster zone by building several new plants to mix concrete there, including those based on barges.
The government hopes to alleviate a bottleneck in reconstruction work across Japan's disaster zone by building several new plants to mix concrete there, including those based on barges.
The plants will be located in four districts of Iwate and Fukushima prefectures, with a possible additional fixed facility in Miyagi Prefecture, the land ministry announced on March 3. They will be built with public money.
Reconstruction projects have proliferated rapidly in recent months, and the fresh, newly mixed concrete needed for roads and buildings has proved to be in short supply.
Amid concerns that the shortage may restrict the overall pace of recovery, a committee focusing on reconstruction after the Great East Japan Earthquake unveiled the new plan at a meeting in Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture.
Two of the plants will be fixed facilities constructed in Miyako district and Kamaishi district, both in Iwate Prefecture. They will, in part, supply concrete for the construction of a new expressway along the Sanriku coast linking Sendai and Hachinohe, Aomori Prefecture.
The expressway project will reach full speed in 2014. Construction of certain sections, particularly tunnels, will require significant amounts of concrete, and ministry officials believe private suppliers will be unable to meet that demand alone.
In Ofunato district, Iwate Prefecture, and Soso district, Fukushima Prefecture, the ministry will acquire concrete mixing plants fixed aboard floating barges to supply contractors, such as those involved in rebuilding ports. The private companies will lease the plants from the government, but it will cover the usage fees.
At the meeting, the ministry also unveiled its estimate of the upcoming shortfall in nine regions in the three northeastern prefectures along the Sanriku coast.
It predicts that Kesennuma district, Ishinomaki district and Sendai district in Miyagi Prefecture will be unable to meet demand.
The four other districts are the ones where new plants will be built, but the ministry is considering signing off on an additional plant, in Kesennuma.
It is not only disaster recovery work that will boost demand for fresh concrete. Broad-based economic stimulus spending under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's administration will result in a greater number of public works projects nationwide.
And while building new plants may fix one bottleneck, others could yet emerge—including a shortage of sand, a raw ingredient of concrete.
(This article was written by Satoshi Kimura and Miho Tanaka.)