Tsukuba-Mirai City in Ibaraki Prefecture and NEXCO East Japan’s Kanto Branch announced that the “Tsukuba-Mirai Smart Interchange” on the Joban Expressway (E6) will open at 3:00 p.m. on August 29.
The Tsukuba Mirai Smart IC connects to the existing mainline between the Yawara IC and the Yatabe IC, and is located 3.7 km from the Yawara IC and 7.5 km from the Yatabe IC. It is a 24-hour, stop-and-go-type Smart IC accessible to all vehicle types equipped with an ETC on-board unit.
With the construction of the Smart IC, the travel time from the TX Mirai-daira Station development area to the expressway will be reduced from the current approximately 17 minutes (about 8 km)—via the congested National Route 294—to approximately 9 minutes (about 8 km), a reduction of about 8 minutes.
In addition, access to the Fukuoka District Industrial Zone and the Fukuoka Industrial Park is expected to improve, leading to more efficient logistics. In terms of medical care, the transport time from the Tsukuba Mirai Fire Station to Tsukuba Medical Center Hospital—a tertiary emergency care facility—will be reduced by approximately 5 minutes, from the current 39 minutes (about 18 km) to about 34 minutes (about 21 km).
The standard ETC tolls (for standard-sized vehicles) from major interchanges are 910 yen from Misato, 550 yen from Kashiwa, and 1,810 yen from Mito.
© Source travel watch