
ガソリンスタンドって、ほぼみなさん自宅の近くに決めているだろうと思います。
わが家では、高校同期の友人がやっていた店舗はやや遠くでしたが「ここに決めてるから」と会社の管理車両のGS(と以降、省略表記)で利用していたものが閉店するに伴い、わが家の近くに変更。
ところがそのGSも今年の6月くらいから「改修」ということで閉鎖。やむなくそのさらに遠く、わが家から1.5kmくらいの販売店で入れています。散歩道の1コースにもなっているので、ときどき「ガソリンスタンドの建築改修工事って、どうなっているんだ?」という興味から覗き見させてもらっています。どうもいまだに「建築の内臓までの観察」動機が内発してくる(笑)。
モータリゼーションの普及から半世紀以上経過してきて「装置産業」としてのGSも更新時期を一斉に迎えるのでしょう。一時期は、ひょっとして電気自動車の普及でどうなるのか、という疑問もあった業界でしょうが、全世界的にはEVの進展はあるが日本はそうはなっていない。むしろEV車の問題点が出てきている。アメリカのテスラ創業者は目敏く事業基盤を情報産業にも拡大転換させてきている。こちらも日本ではテスラは売れないのが現実のようだ。
EVと同時並行して拡大したソーラー発電「畑」は、今次の台風で千葉県・印旛沼では冠水後、電気設備のショートが原因とみられる火災が発生。自然災害時の太陽光設備の安全管理という問題も可視化。
そういう状況の中で、GS業界でこのような「改装」に踏み切る経営者も出てきた、ということか。
で、装置産業である様子が端的に示されているのが、この写真かと。この改修には約半年かかるとアナウンスされていますが、いったん既存配管を撤去してそのあとに敷設されたのが写真の配管装置。長期にわたる「安全性」「機能性」を確保する根幹部分なのだろうと推測。
まさに「世に連れ」がわかりやすく可視化されている光景のようで、ときどき工事状況を見学させていただいております。 ふ〜む。
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English version⬇
[A Look at a Gas Station Renovation Site]
Reports of a fire involving a solar power system at Inbanuma. A gas station undergoing a six-month equipment upgrade amid Japan’s low EV adoption rate. A glimpse into the inner workings of the “equipment industry.” …~
I imagine most people choose a gas station that’s close to their home.
In our case, the station run by a friend from high school was a bit far away, but since we’d been using it for our company’s fleet vehicles (GS, as it will be abbreviated hereafter) with the excuse, “We’ve decided to use this one,” we switched to a station closer to home when that one closed.
However, that GS has also been closed since around June of this year for “renovations.” We’ve had no choice but to fill up at a station even farther away—about 1.5 km from our house. Since it’s also part of one of my walking routes, I occasionally stop by out of curiosity to see how the construction and renovation work on the gas station is coming along. It seems my inner urge to “observe the inner workings of a building” still kicks in (laughs).
More than half a century has passed since the spread of motorization, and gas stations—as part of the “equipment industry”—are likely reaching their renewal phase all at once. At one point, the industry must have wondered what would happen with the spread of electric vehicles, but while EVs are advancing globally, that hasn’t been the case in Japan. Rather, problems with EVs are beginning to surface. The founder of Tesla in the U.S. has shrewdly expanded and shifted his business base into the information technology industry. Here in Japan, too, the reality seems to be that Teslas don’t sell well.
Meanwhile, solar power “fields”—which expanded in tandem with EVs—were hit by a recent typhoon in Chiba Prefecture’s Imba Marsh, where flooding led to a fire believed to have been caused by a short circuit in the electrical equipment. This has brought to light the issue of safety management for solar power facilities during natural disasters.
Given this situation, it seems some executives in the GS industry have decided to take the plunge and undertake such “renovations.”
This photo, I think, clearly illustrates the nature of this equipment-based industry. It has been announced that this renovation will take about half a year; the piping system shown in the photo was installed after the existing piping was first removed. I surmise this is the core component designed to ensure “safety” and “functionality” over the long term.
It’s a scene that clearly visualizes how the industry is “keeping pace with the times,” and I occasionally visit the site to observe the progress of the construction. Hmm.
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Posted on 9月 25th, 2026 by 三木 奎吾
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