Japan To Build 250-Mile-Long, Four Storey-High Wall To Stop Tsunamis

An anonymous reader points out this daunting construction plan in Japan. "Japanese authorities have unveiled plans to build a giant 250-mile long sea barrier to protect its coastline from devastating tsunamis. According to the proposals, the £4.6bn ($6.8bn) barrier would reach 12.5m high in some places – stretching taller than a four storey building. It would be made out of cement – and actually be composed of a chain of smaller sea walls to make construction easier. The plan comes four years after a huge tsunami ravaged Japan's north-eastern coast."

Comments

Most of Japan is very beautiful...

[Rei]

.... but their beaches, usually not so much. So hopefully this won't be too much of an eyesore. Japan is usually pretty good about trying to fit human-made structures into the landscape; my friends and I had a running joke when we were there: "They have the prettiest drainage ditches here!" ;) That said, a 250-mile long, 4-story "anything", that's going to be hard to make look nice.

I'm rather curious about what kind of concrete they're going to use. Japan has been a pioneer in the use of fiber-reinforced concrete, I wonder if they'll use that in lieu of steel that may need cathodic protection in such a high salt environment?

Ugly Solution

[Anonymous Coward]

A huge wall seems like an ugly and in-elegant solution. Building large mounds of forested areas would be much more attractive and useful (as a wildlife, tourist, and a tree resource). As a backup - build man made lakes at a higher altitude that can dump into the ocean in under 20 minutes and time the water dump to coincide with the tsunami. I would much rather be surrounded by trees and lakes than look at a big, ugly wall when I went to the beach.

Re:Ugly Solution

[drinkypoo]

That the proposal is just bare concrete seems completely inexplicable to me; not only is concrete ugly as sin, it's also hugely unfriendly to the environment in terms of CO2 production.

You're not familiar with Japan, are you? You may not be able to get a permit to cut down a tree in your yard, if you're lucky enough to have one, but they're perfectly happy to buy up every redwood tree they can convince someone to cut down on their behalf. They coat them in tar and sink them beneath the ocean. Mature redwoods are some of the world's most efficient fixers of CO2; a mature tree actually fixes more carbon than the equivalent mass of young trees, or the equivalent area coverage of same.

Japan gives not one tenth of one fuck about environmental impact, so long as it doesn't affect them, just like everyone else. And they seem to be incapable of recognizing that the things they are doing are doing that, just like everyone else.

Will that be enough?

[hcs_$reboot]

In 2010 I visited a small town in Iwate where a high tsunami wall had been built 40 years before. In March 2011, the town has been completely devastated by the tsunami. Will the new wall be high and solid enough? That's an interesting question, but we won't probably know the answer (fortunately) before another few hundred years.

Is anyone else reminded of King Canute?

[JThaddeus]

"But the sullen ocean answered with a louder, deeper roar,
And the rapid waves drew nearer, falling sounding on the shore;"
--William Thackeray King Canute