Japan's Bridges: Kitsuneyachi Bridge in Miyagi Prefecture (2)

June 2011 (38.5556 Degrees, 141.4246 Degrees) Kitsuneyachi Bridge

A closer look at yesterday's bridge that shows mostly cosmetic damage from the March tsunami. It's curious how some bridge spans were washed away by the tsunami while other spans stayed put. Probably a combination of the wave height and velocity, how much air was trapped under the spans, and how well they were tied to the bent caps.

Japan's Bridges: Kitsuneyachi Bridge in Miyagi Prefecture (2) by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Japan's Bridges: Kitsuneyachi Bridge in Miyagi Prefecture (1)

June 2011 (38.5556 Degrees, 141.4246 Degrees) Kitsuneyachi Bridge

A three span steel girder bridge on hammerhead bents and seat-type abutments across a channel near the Kitakami River Bridge. Note the severe tsunami damage to nearby houses (and no bridge damage). 

Japan's Bridges: Kitsuneyachi Bridge in Miyagi Prefecture (1) by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Japan's Bridges: Kitakami River Bridge in Miyagi Prefecture (2)

June 2011 (38.547 Degrees, 141.424 Degrees) Kitakami River Bridge

The missing spans at the end of the Kitakami River Bridge. The piers had devices to hold the trusses for an earthquake but they were torn off by the tsunami. Two buildings alongside the river had damage to their first story, suggesting the tsunami wave was about 3 meters above the bridge deck. Observers said the two trusses rotated off of the piers, which is consistent with their appearance in the water.

Japan's Bridges: Kitakami River Bridge in Miyagi Prefecture (2) by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Japan's Bridges: Kitakami River Bridge in Miyagi Prefecture (1)

June 2011 (38.547 Degrees, 141.424 Degrees) Kitakami River Bridge

Continuing northeast about 4 km from its mouth is the new Kitakami River Bridge, a 566m long truss bridge carrying Route 398. It is a simple span bridge with seven 84.8m long spans. As the tsunami moved upstream (and back downstream) along the Kitakami River most of the damage occurred on the shallow (northwest side) including the removal of the last two bridge spans. When I arrived three months later the deck was still covered in debris and earth movers were busy regrading the riverbanks.

Japan's Bridges: Kitakami River Bridge in Miyagi Prefecture (1) by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Japan's Bridges: Shin-Iinogawa Bridge in Miyagi Prefecture

June 2011 (38.514 Degrees, 141.308 Degrees) Shin-Iinogawa Bridge

The next bridge we came to (as we continued driving northeast around the hills in Kofunakoshi) was the Shin-Iinogawa Bridge across the Kitakami River. It is a long steel girder bridge on concrete pier walls. When I first looked at it, I wasn't sure what I was seeing until I realized that every inch of the superstructure was covered in canvas while it was being repainted.

Japan's Bridges: Shin-Iinogawa Bridge in Miyagi Prefecture by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Japan's Bridges: Kofunakoshi Bridge in Miyagi Prefecture

June 2011 (38.502 Degrees, 141.287 Degrees) Kofunakoshi Bridge

Continuing north on the Yamoto Ishinomaki Road (just past the Shin Tenno Bridge) is a hill with a deck arch bridge over the roadway. This bridge connects a neighborhood on each side of the highway. The hill is all by itself in the middle of the plain. Note the crib walls used to support the cut section through the hill. 

Japan's Bridges: Kofunakoshi Bridge in Miyagi Prefecture by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Japan's Bridges: Shin Tenno Bridge in Miyagi Prefecture

June 2011 (38.492 Degrees, 141.289 Degrees) Shin Tenno Bridges

Parallel to the Tenno Bridges is the Shin Tenno Bridge carrying Yamoto Ishinomaki Road across the Onagawa River. It is a continuous three span steel girder bridge with long approaches on reinforced concrete viaducts and on fill supported by retaining walls. The fill settled during the March earthquake requiring ramps for vehicles to get on and off the bridge. 

Japan's Bridges: Shin Tenno Bridge in Miyagi Prefecture by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Japan's Bridges: Tenno Bridges in Miyagi Prefecture (3)

June 2011 (38.492 Degrees, 141.290 Degrees) Tenno Bridges

A view from the deck of the Tenno Footbridge. You can see buckled and missing cross bracing at the top of the roadway bridge. Note the stiff portal frames near the ends of the arches. To the left is the new Tenno Steel Girder Bridge that we'll study tomorrow.

Japan's Bridges: Tenno Bridges in Miyagi Prefecture (3) by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Japan's Bridges: Tenno Bridges in Miyagi Prefecture (2)

June 2011 (38.492 Degrees, 141.290 Degrees) Tenno Bridges

Another view of the Tenno Bridges from the walkway of an adjacent bridge. I would assume both arch bridges have the same span length so why are the arch ribs on the roadway bridge so much higher?  I guess it's because they support several lanes of traffic.

Japan's Bridges: Tenno Bridges in Miyagi Prefecture (2) by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Japan's Bridges: Tenno Bridges in Miyagi Prefecture (1)

June 2011 (38.492 Degrees, 141.290 Degrees) Tenno Bridges

Continuing north we came to the Tenno Road and Foot Bridges that carry Route 45 (the Ichinoseki Highway) over the Onagawa River. The bridges were too far upstream to be impacted by the tsunami, but the road bridge suffered ground shaking damage to the bracing between the arch ribs and under the deck. This damage was due to buckling of the braces and tearing of the gusset plates. There was also some pier wall damage from an earlier earthquake that finally got repaired after the March earthquake.

These structures (built in 1965) are both tied arch bridges with steel I girders for hangers. The hangers are flared at the top where they attach to the arch ribs. Most of the bridge was put together with high-strength bolts, but it looks like rivets were used for the arch ribs.

It seems that the Japanese make use a large variety of bridges for river crossings and they don't seem to mind the added expense of a separate superstructure for the walkway.

Japan's Bridges: Tenno Bridges in Miyagi Prefecture (1) by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Japan's Bridges: Utility Bridge across a Branch of the Kitakami, Miyaki Prefecture

June 2011 (38.556 Degrees, 141.415 Degrees) Kitakami Utility Bridge

A utility bridge across a branch of the Kitakami River. Most of these utility bridges are identical, a three chord truss with the utility as the bottom chord supported on single column/pile extension bents. I just like the bright green color of these bridges.

Japan must have different relationships between public and private utility companies. In California we put utility openings in our bridges and they get filled with other people's pipes and cables. I guess in Japan they prefer to maintain their own lifelines without having to ask someone for access.

Japan's Bridges: Utility Bridge across a Branch of the Kitakami, Miyaki Prefecture by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Japan's Bridges: Jokawa Bridge across the Higashimatsushima River, Miyagi Prefecture

June 2011 (38.4199 Degrees, 141,2470 Degrees) Jokawa Bridge

Near the mouth of the Higashimatsushima River is the Jokawa Bridge, a three-span precast I girder bridge on pier walls and seat-type abutments. During the tsunami, a barge broke loose and struck the bridge, taking out the middle span and damaging the other spans. The tsunami waves also scoured the soil at the west abutment, leaving one of the spans (almost) surrounded by water.

Japan's Bridges: Jokawa Bridge across the Higashimatsushima River, Miyagi Prefecture by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Japan's Bridges: Higashimatsushima River Bridges in Miyagi Prefecture

June 2011 (38.4383 Degrees, 141.2281 Degrees) Higashimatsushima River Bridges

Many rivers flow into Ishinomaki Bay. To the south, the Higashimatsushima River is crossed by dozens of bridges. In this photo we can see utility and steel girder roadway bridges crossing the river in this residential neighborhood. We are a little bit upstream of the tsunami damage, but we'll look at a damaged bridge tomorrow.

Japan's Bridges: Higashimatsushima River Bridges in Miyagi Prefecture by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Japan's Bridges: Onagawa Bridges in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture

June 2011 (38.427 Degrees, 141.311 Degrees) Kitakami River Bridges

A view upstream at the Onagawa (a branch of the Kitakami River) in Ishinomaki. Behind me there was severe devastation due to the tsunami. At the end of the island in this photo is a bulb-shaped building that housed a famous comic book museum (Ishinomaki Mangattan). A replica of the Statue of Liberty also remained standing.

The steel girder bridges to the island were overtopped by the tsunami but they still carry traffic. However, pedestrian walkways on the exterior girders were washed away. The Shin Bridge (further upstream) appeared to be undamaged.

Japan's Bridges: Onagawa Bridges in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Japan's Bridges: Sanriku Expressway Interchange in Miyagi Prefecture

June 2011 (38.3027 Degrees, 140.9812 Degrees) Sanriku Expressway Interchange

A photo looking north at the Sanriku Expressway just before it splits into the Sendai Hokubu Road going northwest and the Sanriku Expressway going northeast. We are leaving the Sendai Plains and will be climbing into the coastal mountains where the most severe tsunami damage occurred. 

Japan's Bridges: Sanriku Expressway Interchange in Miyagi Prefecture by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Japan's Bridges: Sendai Port Bridges

June 2011 (38.286 Degrees, 141.032 Degrees) Sendai Port Bridges

Some utility bridges in Sendai Port. The port was badly damaged by the tsunami. Row after row of newly built Hondas and Toyotas were sitting in vast parking lots around the port and they were picked up and destroyed by the waves.

In the photo above, several utility lines hang from a Warren truss bridge that had some damage to its left approach. Behind it is a girder bridge that is arched to help support its load. Around the bridges are damaged slope paving and embankments. Just outside of the photo are rows of gas and liquid tanks. One of them must have caught fire after the tsunami because photos and videos showed it burning through the night.

Behind me were the cranes used to load and unload shipping containers. Many of them were off their rails or their mechanisms had been contaminated by seawater. Damaged shipping containers had been picked up and re-stacked. Container ships were also picked up by the waves and now sat among the debris. They said it would be a year before the port could be repaired. So how are all the new cars getting to the dealers?

Japan's Bridges: Sendai Port Bridges by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Japan's Bridges: Construction of Sendai Tobu Interchange, Miyagi Prefecture

June 11, 2011 (38.3695 Degrees, 140.9756 Degrees) 

Just north of the Nanakitagawa in the Miyagino Ward is a project to build a new interchange on the Sendai Tobu Toll Road. The Japanese economy must be so strong that in the middle of recovering of a tsunami they can continue building new infrastructure. I wonder what that massive concrete wall is for?

Japan's Bridges: Construction of Sendai Tobu Interchange, Miyagi Prefecture by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Japan's Bridges: Sendai Railway Station Bridges, Miyagi Prefecture

June 2011 (38.255 Degrees, 140.883 Degrees) Sendai Railway Station Bridges

This was the view from my hotel room in Sendai. We already saw a photo of the same railway bridge at street level on June 13th. In this photo we can see the tracks for the lower level railway below and the higher level (for the Shinkansen) with sound walls on top. We are actually on the other side of Sendai Station from yesterday's photo, which is a little bit beyond the photo to the right. This photo shows how integrated railway travel is into Japan's life.

Japan's Bridges: Sendai Railway Station Bridges, Miyagi Prefecture by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Japan's Bridges: Sendai Station POC in Miyagi Prefecture

June 2011 (38.260 Degrees, 140.880 Degrees) Sendai Station POC

There are many elaborate pedestrian overcrossings in Sendai, but this structure around Sendai Station is easily the biggest. It's about six blocks long and carries passengers above city's streets to public parking and to the many station platforms.

I've recently started taking GPS cameras on my journeys. I just take a lot of photos without paying much attention to where I am. When I get back home, I load the photos onto my iMac. iPhoto turns the photos into little red dots on a map. Picasa provides the latitude and longitude of each photo. I type these coordinates in Google Earth to see where I was. For instance, when I typed today's latitude and longitude into Google Earth, I saw this enormous structure wrapping around the buildings in downtown Sendai.

Japan's Bridges: Sendai Station POC in Miyagi Prefecture by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Japan's Bridges: Route 48 Bridge and Tunnel in Miyage Prefecture

June 2011 (38.2599 Degrees, 140.8204 Degrees) Route 48 Bridge and Tunnel

I thought I'd include this photo because it gives you a sense of what it's like riding in a car in Japan (steering wheel on the right and elaborate navigation system) and it also includes a photo I accidentally took of myself in the rearview mirror. We are driving east on Route 48 on a bridge that goes over a channel just before entering a tunnel that goes under Tohoku University's campus. On the other side of the tunnel is the city of Sendai. We are leaving the hillside community of Oritate, which had a great deal of landslide damage during the earthquake. This is the most western bridge photo I took in Miyagi Prefecture.

Japan's Bridges: Route 48 Bridge and Tunnel in Miyage Prefecture by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Japan's Bridges: Tagohashi Bridges in Miyagi Prefecture (3)

June 2011 (38.287 Degrees, 140.963 Degrees) Tagohashi Bridges

A view from under the Tagohashi Bridges. We can see the two piers connected with a small closure wall. The piers must have been connected to improve streamflow during flooding. It also looks like the girders have moved to the left (and off their bearings) during the earthquake. There are stains at the top of the piers and at mid-height on the pipe piles. I wonder if the tsunami or flooding has overtopped the bridge?

Japan's Bridges: Tagohashi Bridges in Miyagi Prefecture (3) by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Japan's Bridges: Tagohashi Bridges in Miyagi Prefecture (2)

June 2011 (38.2867 Degrees, 140.9627 Degrees) Tagohashi Bridges

Another view of the Tagohashi Bridges (while standing at the end of the utility bridge). The bents for the utility bridge are single pipe pile extensions with a concrete cap. The bents on the road/foot bridge are concrete pier walls, except the closer bridge has a pipe pile bent at one location! I wonder when the bent was replaced and why?

They really made the gate on the utility bridge lethal to climb over. However, it looks pretty easy to just swing yourself around the gate and onto the deck. I wonder why the utility bridge is freshly painted while the road/foot bridges are rusty? 

Japan's Bridges: Tagohashi Bridges in Miyagi Prefecture (2) by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Japan's Bridges: Tagohashi Bridges in Miyagi Prefecture (1)

June 2011 (38.2867 Degrees, 140.9627 Degrees) Tagohashi Bridges

We returned to the Nanakitagawa and came upon three bridges in a quiet neighborhood, unrelated to any major highway. Perhaps that's why the roadway bridge remains closed three months after the earthquake. Actually the two bridges on the right share the same pier (or pier widening). Perhaps both decks were originally roadway bridges, but the one on the far right now is used only to carry pedestrians.

They are four span steel girder bridges that slammed into the abutments (or maybe the abutments slammed into the girders) during the March earthquake. The utility bridge remains undamaged. A sign on the pedestrian bridge said it was built in 1967 but they look older and are in poor shape. Maybe they aren't being repaired because they are in poor condition? We'll take another look at them tomorrow.

Japan's Bridges: Tagohashi Bridges in Miyagi Prefecture (1) by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Japan's Bridges: Route 4 Bridges over the Umeda in Miyagi Prefecture

June 2011 (38.273 Degrees, 140.939 Degrees) Umeda River Bridges

Back on National Route 4, driving north over the Umeda River, a tributary of the Nanakitagawa. I like these brightly painted steel arch bridges that carry the frontage roads on the sides of the highway bridges. In California, the tendency would be to build the adjacent bridges either attached to the existing bridges, or in the same style as the existing bridges. Japan is not like that for some reason.

Japan's Bridges: Route 4 Bridges over the Umeda in Miyagi Prefecture by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Japan's Bridges: Wastewater Treatment Bridge in Miyagi Prefecture

June 2011 (38.250 Degrees, 141.004 Degrees) Wastewater Treatment Plant Bridge

Continuing east, we visited a wastewater treatment plant (just south of the Nanakitagawa) that was damaged by the tsunami. Their facilities include an interesting tied arch bridge that crosses the inland waterway near the coast. The bridge was undamaged by the tsunami but some concrete buildings facing the ocean had spectacular damage.

After the earthquake all the workers climbed onto the roof of the building (behind the bridge) and filmed the tsunami. There were many oohs and aahs as the huge waves crashed over the top of the facilities. If it wasn't so awful, it would have been like watching a fireworks display.

Japan's Bridges: Wastewater Treatment Bridge in Miyagi Prefecture by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.