Plans to build a road tunnel as part of the 120km long Keinawa Expressway linking Kyoto and Wakayama via Nara in Japan could be redesigned amid fears construction would be environmentally damaging. The tunnel would run under the ancient Heijo Palace in Nara but there is concern construction would destroy a large number of buried relics.
The fears centre around the possible effect of the tunnel on groundwater levels that are critical to the local muds that provide natural protection to the relics.
A special construction and transport ministry panel set up in March, that includes eight civil engineers, has sided with a UN team and archaeologists, saying the tunnel should be rerouted.
Japan’s national highway authority is still backing the plans, saying any change in alignment would increase construction costs.
