Meanwhile, just down the road from me, we've had a major bridge closed since April of last year, and is due to reopen October 2024....
Videos like this should be a lesson to Civic planners everywhere.
Japanese rail projects aren't particularly fast. The subway line that was connected in this 3 hour switch started construction in 2001, finished in 2008, and the connection made in the video was completed in 2013. https://ja-m-wikipedia-org.translate.goog/wiki/%E6%9D%B1%E4%...
This project for example started in 2006 and opened last year: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Kanagawa_Rail_Link
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One other thing that makes the 3 hour window possible is the sheer amount of manpower they throw at the problem during these three hours. the US does not have a project construction industry built around swarming, but rather maintaining a lower cost small crew at all times. One reason why there is so much construction in Japan is because the government has relied on fiscal stimulus to the point where it now has the highest debt-to-GDP in the world at a rate of 263%.
IIRC it’s something like if a state can fix a damaged/destroyed freeway in under sixty days the feds pay for it entirely.
They have no appetite for anything new and they have no appetite for not being the one who thought of it.
https://youtu.be/dMvmhyGgaq4?si=YXMt5tWpuNVXkcT7 (not necessarily the one I’m thinking of)