Arita-Kainan Road: Section north of Kainan Sakuras to open on June 7, 2025
This is a follow-up to the article "Status of the Arita-Kainan Road near Kainan Sakuras as of March 23, 2025."
In the article above,
>The northern half of the Arita-Kainan Road (north of the Kainan Sakuras roadside station on National Route 42) is scheduled to open in the spring of 2025, along with the adjacent northern section, the 'Shimizu Widening.' However, the specific opening date has not been announced as of the time this blog post was written.
I wrote the above, but the opening date and time were announced on April 23, 2025. It is "3:00 PM on Saturday, June 7, 2025."
https://www.kkr.mlit.go.jp/wakayama/news/press/20250423.pdf
It is likely that the parties involved wanted to open it in May, which falls under the general category of "spring," but perhaps they had to wait until after that because the Wakayama gubernatorial election, following the passing of the incumbent governor, was set for June 1, 2025.
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/lnews/wakayama/20250418/2040019676.html
Once opened, traffic on the current National Route 42, which suffers from the combined adverse conditions of being "vulnerable to natural disasters along slopes" and having "a series of narrow tunnels," should decrease significantly, while traffic on the section of Wakayama Prefectural Road 166 Kamo-go Station Line near Kainan Sakuras, which serves as the connection point to the unopened section, will likely increase significantly.
Additionally, a walking event for the newly opened section will be held on May 10, 2025.
https://www.kkr.mlit.go.jp/wakayama/news/press/20250423-2.pdf