Sendai City initial recovery plan calls for building up highways to make double seawall

Almost a month after Miyagi Prefecture released initial reconstruction plans for its other coastal municipalities, Sendai City released its initial concept and began hearings.

Sendai's "Recovery Vision" calls for moving about 2,600 families away from the coast into new municipal development zones. A double seawall system will replace them. A traditional seawall on the oceanfront will be backed by forested barriers laced with drainage canals. Behind them, two existing major highways will be built up into seawalls using rubble left by the earthquake and tsunami. Farmland will take up the space between these highway-cum-seawalls.



Sendai hopes to finalize these plans in October following a period of public comments and hearings.

Sources:
Kahoku Online Network, 2011/5/21, http://www.kahoku.co.jp/spe/spe_sys1062/20110521_10.htm (accessed 2011/5/22)

Kahoku Online Network, 2011/5/22, http://www.kahoku.co.jp/news/2011/05/20110522t11027.htm (accessed 2011/5/22)