(Reporter Junki Takahashi) I am on the Kita 5-jo side of the street that was closed to traffic today. There is hardly any traffic congestion right now, but before the broadcast started, there were a few cars with their turn signals on, intending to turn onto the closed road.
When those cars realized the road was closed, they turned off their turn signals and drove straight ahead. In the area that is closed to traffic, the sidewalk on the Sapporo Station side of the redevelopment area was closed to traffic this morning, and people were seen going back and forth across the crosswalk. The street in front of this camera mark is closed to vehicles and sidewalks only in the southbound direction starting today.
Construction to expand the platform for Sapporo Station on the Namboku Line of the subway is underway directly beneath this road, and it is scheduled to continue until the summer of 2028, around July. It is expected that this road closure will continue until then. For the next two years or so, people heading to Sapporo Station should be careful of the closed section of the road.
(Announcer Hideaki Yoda) Yes, let’s summarize it on the map. The area around Sapporo Station is changing, and two sections have been closed to traffic starting today. The first is the road east of the former Esta site, and the second is the sidewalk and roadway heading south on Ekimae-dori. The reason for the closure of Ekimae-dori is that construction work will be carried out to add a platform to the Namboku Line.
Currently, the Namboku Line only has one platform. Northbound and southbound trains run alongside it, but after the improvements, one more platform will be added. The current platform will be exclusively for trains heading towards Aso, and the newly added platform will be exclusively for trains heading towards Makomanai. As indicated by this color, the construction work will take place on the southbound section of Ekimae-dori, which has been closed to traffic since today, so this is the construction zone. The platform exclusively for Makomanai-bound trains will also have a ticket gate that connects to the redevelopment building on the former Sapporo Seibu site, improving convenience.
Currently, the average daily ridership at Sapporo Subway Station is 57,000 people, but with the ongoing redevelopment, this is expected to increase to 82,000, so we can hopefully expect some congestion relief. In winter, when people walk from the JR side of Sapporo Station, this area can get really crowded and feel dangerous, so I hope the congestion will be alleviated effectively. The road closure on the above-ground Ekimae-dori is scheduled to last until the end of July 2028.
