The word Tōmei is an acronym consisting of two kanji characters. The first character refers to Tokyo (東京) and the second refers to Nagoya (名古屋), which are the two major urban areas linked by the expressway.
Officially the expressway is designated as the First Tōkai Expressway.[5] A second Tōkai Expressway (operating as the Shin-Tōmei Expressway) is under construction parallel to the existing route, and is intended to alleviate congestion problems[6] in the near term.
The Tōmei Expressway is an important roadway linking Tokyo and Nagoya. It is the most heavily travelled roadway operated by Central Nippon Expressway Company, with some sections used by more than 100,000 vehicles a day.[6]
The first sections were opened to traffic in 1968 and the entire route was completed in 1969.[1]
From the origin in western Tokyo the expressway follows a westerly route through Kanagawa Prefecture, paralleling National Route 246 and passing to the north of Yokohama. The route continues west into Shizuoka Prefecture, passing to the south of Mount Fuji and along the coastline of Suruga Bay, paralleling National Route 1 and the historic Tōkaidō highway before reaching the city of Shizuoka. The expressway continues west, passing Lake Hamana in western Shizuoka Prefecture, and crosses into Aichi Prefecture. The expressway then heads northwest, passing to the east of the city of Nagoya and meeting the terminus of the Chūō Expressway before terminating at an interchange in the city of Komaki to the north of Nagoya. Although the Tōmei Expressway ends at this point, the roadway continues as the Meishin Expressway towards Kyoto, Osaka, and Kobe.
List of interchanges and features
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Sections with left and right routes formerly carried 2 lanes of traffic in each direction. An additional roadway (carrying 3 lanes of traffic in one direction only) has been constructed parallel to the existing 4 lanes to alleviate congestion. The original 4 lanes are then converted for the use of traffic in the opposite direction.
^Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, 2003 Asian Highway HandbookArchived 2012-04-14 at the Wayback Machine, 2003, page 54 shows an aerial photo of the Yokohama Aoba Interchange, placing AH1 clearly on the Tomei Expressway rather than the other Tokyo-Nagoya expressway, the Chūō Expressway.
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