I went to see the site featured in the Norimono News article distributed on Yahoo, “Mukogawa Bridge Switched to a ‘Temporary Bridge’ as Nishinomiya Najio’s Winding National Route Improvement Work Transforms the Area.”
Here it is↓
On the map, it’s around here↓
The address is Namaze, Shiose-cho, Nishinomiya City, Hyogo Prefecture.
This is Route 176, also known as the Najio Road. Can you tell it’s a two-lane road?
This area is Namaze, and apparently the section from here to Najio is closed almost every year during extreme weather such as heavy rain.
Some people can’t get back from Takarazuka to Najio and so on. It’s a serious issue.
Around the middle of the red section below
From About National Route 176 (Najio Road) | Nishinomiya City Website
To prevent this road from being subject to traffic restrictions during extreme weather, construction is underway to expand it from the current two lanes to four lanes.
A tunnel for that purpose had been dug.
Apparently, it has already broken through. It’s called the Shiroyama Tunnel and is about 311 meters long.
This is what it looks like inside. I suppose it will be paved from here.
This is the mountain where the Shiroyama Tunnel is located. The upper part of this mountain is a cliff. “That’s why they’re shaving down the upper section,” I was told. One of the construction workers explained it to me with a thoughtful air.
As part of this construction, the red Saiho Bridge has been closed to traffic from late tonight, 9/8. It looks like they’ll be replacing the bridge.
The blue bridge you can see next to it is the temporary bridge.
It’s for pedestrians only.
The bridge shown on the left side of the photo is the temporary bridge for vehicles. The one on the right is the temporary pedestrian bridge.
The Najio Road is being upgraded with disaster-prevention measures.
Completion is scheduled for spring 2026. Hopefully this will help make Nishinomiya more resilient to disasters.
