Renewals in the fast lane

As we all know, Kochi can be a bit behind sometimes when it comes to transport. However, the people behind the grand plans of renewing Kochi’s roads have made some groundbreaking progress of late, with the opening of 2 new sections of the proposed expressway extensions.

One is the extension of the west side of the Kochi Expressway, opened on March 5th, which will allow motorists to go as far as Nakatosa IC, and shaving off 6 minutes of travel. This may be miniscule, but it helps clear the difficult bends at Yakezaka, and is free for use.（①）

The other small breakthrough is the bypass between Konan Yasu IC and Geisei-Nishi IC out east, opened on March 26, which marked the first section to be opened for the Kochi Eastern Expressway. This expressway will be incrementally opened for traffic as they are completed, and will stretch to Aki when all construction is complete.（②）

There are plans to eventually link all of Shikoku by expressways in an 8 figure.