Proceedings of the International Symposium on Engineering Lessons Learned fromthe 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, March 1-4, 2012, Tokyo, Japan

Damage Investigation of Sanriku Railway Suffered fromthe 2011 off the Pacific Coast of Tohoku Earthquake
Makoto FUJIU1, Muneyoshi NUMADA2, Kazuyuki TAKADA3, Miho OHARA4
and Kimiro MEGURO5
1

Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Interdisciplinary Information Studies, The University of Tokyo,
Tokyo, Japan, fujiu@iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp
2
Assistant Professor, Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo,Tokyo, Japan, ohara@iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp
3
Associate Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Tokyo Denki University,
Tokyo, Japan, ohara@iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp
4
Associate Professor, Interfaculty Initiative in Information Studies, The University of Tokyo,
Tokyo, Japan, ohara@iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp
5Professor, Interfaculty Initiative in Information Studies, The University of Tokyo,
Tokyo, Japan, ohara@iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp
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Key Words: the 2011 off the Pacific Coast of Tohoku Earthquake, transportation
infrastructure, Sanriku railway, evacuation facility

INTRODUCTION
At 14:46 JST (5:46 UTC) on March 11th, 2011, an earthquake of moment magnitude 9.0, the largest
earthquake ever recorded in Japan, struck off the shore of the Sanriku area in the Tohoku Region. The“mega tsunami” which followed hit deeply indented coastal areas and brought extensive anddevastating damage to many cities and villages in this area. Mega tsunami damage was not restricted
only to buildings and houses, but the resulting fires destroyed many communities and even nuclear
power plant (NPP) facilities have suffered complicated and serious damage due to this mega tsunami.
This earthquake was later named “The 2011 off the Pacific coast of Tohoku Earthquake” by the Japan
Meteorological Agency (JMA). The total number of dead and missing continues to increase relative tothe 1995 Kobe Earthquake due to the large magnitude and killer tsunami of the earthquake. As of
August 12th, 2011, the numbers of dead and missing were 15,694 and 4,669, respectively, and that ofcomplete building damage was 112,962. This paper is a quick report on the damage investigation ofSanriku railway by the authors. Due to the large scale of the earthquake damage and issues suchas fuel shortage and damage to transportation infrastructure, the investigated area was limited to1451

just the Tohoku area.

Giant Tsunami destroyed enormous number of buildings and transport facilities such as railway,ports and airport, and enormous number of people is sacrificed. Several infrastructures are damaged by
the earthquake and Tsunami. In the aspect of transportation infrastructure, expressway (Fig. 1), railway(Fig. 2), airport (Fig. 3) etc. are suffered from the earthquake and Tsunami. Characteristics of damage
are as follow. Expressway and road is suffered from seismic ground motion. On the other hand,railway, airports and sea ports are suffered from Tsunami. Sendai airport which is located coast side ofdamaged area is attacked by Tsunami. Then, runway, passenger terminal and fuel tank are destroyed.
After a few days, Sendai airport began to operate as a base of relief activities which is supported U.S.
forces. Then, railway and road network which is transportation route for relief materiel destroyed andsuspended by disaster. Then, governments and volunteer in Japan cannot deliver relief goods and aidworker. On the other hand, aviation fields in Japan participate actively in special assistance ofdamaged area in this disaster. Furthermore, it is possible to deliver goods and person to damaged areaby airline.
On the other hand, a lot of railway lines are suffered from earthquake and Tsunami. For example,Jyoban line, Senseki line, Ishinomaki line, Kesennuma line, Ofunato line, Yamada line Senseki line,
Ishinomaki line, Yamada line, Iwaizumi line and Hachinohe line are operated by JR East Company.
Furthermore Kita riasu line and Minami riasu line are operated by Sanriku railway company. Theserailway lines have a lot of damage which are not only railway line but also railway stations. Fig.4
shows that railway operations in Tohoku area (as of June 26th, 2011). Black line indicates notoperation railway line. That is concentrate coast side of Sanriku region. Many railway lines are notoperation due to the huge damage by earthquake and Tsunami.

Fig.1 Damage of Expressway (Joban Expressway)Fig.2 Damage of Railway line (JR Kesennuma line(left), JR Yamada line (right))

Fig.3 Damage of Sendai Airport ( Passenger Terminal (left), Car park (right))

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Fig. 4 Status of railway operation in Tohoku area

Fig. 5 Railway system of Sanriku railway

OUTLONE OF THE INVESTIGATION
Authors conducted field survey on March 26th and 27th, 2011 for damaged area which is sufferedfrom the 2011 off the Pacific Coast of Tohoku Earthquake. Field survey areas by authors are coast sideof Miyagi prefecture and Iwate prefecture. Furthermore, authors conducted interview survey forpresident of sanriku railway at main office of sanriku railway which located in Miyako city. Survey
items of interview survey are as follows, correspondence during earthquake occurs, damage level,
restoration situation and policy in the future for recovery.
Table 1 Member of the investigation
NameTetsuro HYODO
Seiji IWAKURA
Kazuyuki TAKADA
Muneyoshi NUMADA
Makoto FUJIU
Tsuyoshi IHARA

Affiliation
Professor, Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology
Professor, Shibaura Institute of Technology
Associate Professor, Tokyo Denki University
Assistant Professor, The University of Tokyo
Ph.D. Candidate, The University of Tokyo
Graduate student, Chuo University

OUTLINE OF THE SANRIKU RAILWAY
Sanriku railway is private railway company in Iwate prefecture. Sanriku railway operates the Sanriku
coast of Iwate prefecture which is Rias coast. Sanriku railway has two railway lines which is Kita riasuline (71.0 km) and Minami riasu line (36.6 km). Kita riasu line operates between Miyako station andKuji station. Minami riasu line operates between Kamaishi station and Sakari station. Both railway

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Fig. 6 Damage and railway line (Minami riasu line)

Fig. 7 Damage and railway line (Kita riasu line)
line are used for resident who live in Sanriku coast area. Sanriku railway has many roles for resident
which are commute, hospital access and shopping and so on. Sanriku railway starts to operate in April
1st, 1984. Sanriku railway has some construction policies which are strong embankment, strong tunneland station on the bridge. Then, The Sanriku railway has strong infrastructure against the earthquake
and Tsunami. But this earthquake and Tsunami destroyed many railway infrastructures which arerailway line, railway stations and embankment. Kita riasu line is destroyed by earthquake. Minami
riasu line is destroyed by earthquake and Tsunami.

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Fig. 8 details and place of damage

Fig. 9

Shimanokoshi Sta.

Fig.10Fig. 11 Shimanokoshi Sta. (before)

Fig. 13

Washout of Shimanokoshi Sta.

Fig. 12 Shimanokoshi Sta.

Taro Sta.

Fig. 14 Taro Sta.

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DAMAGE OF SANRIKU RAILWAY
Fig. 6 and Fig. 7 shows that damage and railway location in Sanriku railway. Blue line indicates nodamage. Yellow line indicates roadbed subsidence, displacement of railway line and crack of tunnel
which are not too a serious damage. Red line indicates washout of railway line, road bed, embankmentand station which are serious damage. Almost stations locate in cove of riasu coast without Sakaristation, Rikuzenakasaki station and Ayasato station. Then damage concentrate in the colony.
There is several of damage in Sanriku railway. Sanriku railway suffered from Tsunami damages which
are washout of railway, bridge, embankment and stations. Fig. 8 shows details and place of damage.
Whole damage of Sanriku railway is 317 points. About 40% of whole damages are washout of bridgeand embankment which is civil infrastructures. About 42% of whole damages are washout anddisplacement of railway line which is railway structure. Finally, about 13% of whole damages arecommunication line, railway signal and electronic machine which are electronic infrastructures.
Authors conducted field survey of Sanriku railway. Fig. 9 and 10 show damage of Sahimanokoshi
station which located Kita riasu line. Fig. 11 and 12 show Shimanokoshi station which is photo ofbefore earthquake and Tsunami. Fig. 14 and 15 show Taro station which does not have serious damage.
So, Taro station starts to operate on March 20th, 2011.

INTERVIEW SURVEY
Authors conducted interview survey for Sanriku railway on May 10th, 2011. Sanriku railway has two
seismometers which are located in Kuji station (Kita riasu line) and Sakari station (Minami riasu line).
Both seismometers detect restriction value of the manual. Then trains are stopped. Trains cancommunicate to commander of railway operation using disaster priority mobile phone. Sanriku
railway have emergency manual. The driver did the correspondence along the manual, andcorresponded by the driver's judgment. Furthermore, some stations are used for evacuation space
which is Okirai station and so on. Sanriku railway infrastructures are destroyed by earthquake andTsunami, but the whole of damage grasp was postponed because damage was extensive in the Sanriku
railway, the priority level was decided, and it of each section was restored. As a result, Taro isrestoring on March 29 on March 20 March 16 between Omoto and Kuji between Miyako and Taro,though all are the Kita riasu line sections.

CONCLUSIONSAuthors conducted field survey and interview survey of Sanriku railway. As a result of field survey,
we became clear that Sanriku railway have serious damage which is washout of railway line andembankment. And, As a result of interview survey, we become clear that Sanriku railway have twoseismometers, but earthquake early warning (EEW) system is not installed in Sanriku railway
operation. Sanriku railway on March 11th, 2011 operates two trains. However, damage did not occur
to the railway users.

REFERENCES
Sanriku railway. (2009). “Report of Sanriku railway.”
Sanriku railway. (2011). “Report of damage survey of sanriku railway”

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