Expressway

Expressway may refer to:

Expressways of Japan

The expressways (高速道路 kōsoku-dōro, lit. high-speed road) of Japan make up a large network of freeway-standard toll roads.

History

Following World War II, Japan's economic revival led to a massive increase in personal automobile use. However the existing road system was inadequate to deal with the increased demand; in 1956 only 23% of national highways were paved, which included only two thirds of the main Tokyo-Osaka road (National Route 1).

In April 1956 the Japan Highway Public Corporation (JH) was established by the national government with the task of constructing and managing a nationwide network of expressways. In 1957 permission was given to the corporation to commence construction of the Meishin Expressway linking Nagoya and Kobe, the first section of which opened to traffic in 1963.

In addition to the national expressway network administered by JH, the government established additional corporations to construct and manage expressways in urban areas. The Metropolitan Expressway Public Corporation (responsible for the Shuto Expressway) was established in 1959, and the Hanshin Expressway Public Corporation (responsible for the Hanshin Expressway) was established in 1962. By 2004 the lengths of their networks had extended to 283 kilometres (175.8 mi) and 234 kilometres (145.4 mi) respectively.

Malaysian Expressway System

The Malaysian Expressway System (Malay: Sistem Lebuh Raya Ekspres Malaysia) is a network of national controlled-access expressways in Malaysia that forms the primary backbone network of Malaysian national highways. The network begins with the North-South Expressway (NSE), and is being substantially developed. Malaysian expressways are built by private companies under the supervision of the government highway authority, Malaysian Highway Authority (abbreviated as MHA; also referred to as Lembaga Lebuhraya Malaysia (LLM) in Malay).

Overview

The expressway network of Malaysia is considered the best expressway network in Southeast Asia and also in Asia after China and Japan and also the fifth in the world. They were 30 expressways in the country and the total length is 1,821 kilometres (1,132 mi). and another 219.3 kilometres (136.3 mi) is under construction. The closed toll expressway system is similar to the Japanese Expressway System and Chinese Expressway System. All Malaysian toll expressways are controlled-access highway and managed in the Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) system.