Hanshin Expressway – The expressway that runs through a building

Do you know the Japanese expressway called the Hanshin Expressway? Did you know that this road even crosses a fifth and seventh floor building? In this article, we'll get to know the famous road that runs through the Gate Tower Building in Osaka.

The Hanshin Expressway (阪神高速道路) in Japanese is called Hanshin Kousoku-douro and crosses the cities of Osaka, Kobe and Kyoto for a total of 239 Kilometers. The road opened in 1962 connecting several important routes in Kansai.

Before we talk about the famous case of the highway that passes through a building, let's get to know a little about the highway and the routes with which it connects.

Hanshin Expressway highway routes

The Hanshin Expressway connects with the following routes:

• 1 - Rota do Loop (Osaka Central)
• 2 - Yodogawa Sagan Route (Hokko-kita - Universal Studios Japan)
• 3 - Kobe Route (Nishi-nagahori - Amagasaki - Nishinomiya - Kobe)
• 4 - Wangan Route (Osakako - Rinku Town, Kansai Airport)
• 5 - Wangan Rota (Osakako - Rokko Island)
• 7 - Kita Kobe Route (Igawa - Shirakawa - Arima - Nishinomiya-yamaguchi)
• 8 - Rota de Kyoto (Fushimi-ku, Kyoto)
• 11 - Rota Ikeda (Umeda - Toyonaka - Aeroporto de Osaka - Kawanishi - Ikeda)
• 12 - Rota Moriguchi (Kitahama - Moriguchi)
• 13 - Rota de Higashi Osaka (Osaka Central - Higashi-osaka)
• 14 - Matsubara Route (Namba - Hirano - Matsubara)
• 15 - Sakai Route (Sumiyoshi - Suminoe - Sakai)
• Osakako Route (Nishi-nagahori - Osakako)
• 17 - Rota de Nishi Osaka (Bentencho - Sumiyoshi)
• 31 - Rota Kobe Yamate (Kobe - Shirakawa)

The history of the Gate Tower Building with the Hanshin Expressway

In the mid-1980s, Osaka was adding ramps to the Via Hanshin Expressway, but there was land that the owners refused to give an inch of. They had a project to build a building on the site.

After 5 years of negotiation they came up with a solution to build the building along the Hanshin road. The building is constructed with a total of 16 floors and the Hanshin Expressway passes the building from floors 5 to 7.

The Gate Tower Building is also known as the BeeHive (bee hive) and is located in Fukushima-ku city located in Osaka (not the tsunami city). The building belongs to Suezawa Sangyo Co. Ltd and was designed by Azusa Sekkei Co. Ltd and was built by Sato Kogyo in 1992.

This case gave rise to a law that was passed in 1989 and that allows the construction of highways and buildings in the same space. Some might imagine this to be common, but it is very rare and most roads are made underground.

The highway that passes between the buildings does not make any contact with the place, there are only stairs and elevators that jump straight to the eighth floor. The structures are made to protect against noise and vibrations built with reinforced concrete and steel.

Did you know the highway that crosses a Building? Do you know others? I hope you enjoyed this little article, we hope you share it and leave your comments. Thank you and see you next time!