This is the longest ocean crossing in the world.
Consisting of three cable-stayed bridges, three man-made islands and one of the world's
longest undersea tunnels, the entire project has taken eight years to construct at a cost
of over USD $15BN.
The 55-kilometre crossing connects Hong Kong with Macau and Zhuhai, drastically reducing
journey times between the three cities and standing as a testament to the engineering
might of the Chinese.
This is the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge.
China's Pearl River Delta is one of the most densely populated areas on earth with some
68 million people living in the cities that surround the mouth of the river.
The rapid development of Hong Kong in the 1980s and 1990s led to numerous new
road connections across the border into mainland China.
These road connections continued to be improved on the eastern side of the delta, however,
connections to the west were lacking and the most direct land route involved a 160 kilometre,
4.5-hour car journey.
Following the return of the British and Portuguese colonies of Hong Kong and Macau to China in
1997 and 1999 respectively, Chinese and Hong Kong authorities explored the feasibility
of linking the two sides of the river delta to drive economic growth and improve unity.
With clear economic advantages, the chance to increase employment opportunities, reduce
congestion at border checkpoints and cut carbon emissions - the project was approved.
Construction began on the 29.6-kilometre Chinese section of the crossing in 2009.
This element takes the roadway across 22.9 kilometres of elevated roadway and three cable-stayed
bridges before meeting a man-made island and ducking beneath the waves into a 6.7-kilometre
undersea tunnel.
With an estimated 4,000 ships crossing the Pearl River Delta every day, this bridge-tunnel
system allows large ships to pass without the need to navigate around or under bridges.
A similar style of crossing connects Copenhagen in Denmark to Malmo Sweden across the Oresund Strait.
The roadway re-emerges from its undersea tunnel onto another man-made island on the Hong Kong
side of the crossing, close to the city’s airport.
This section of the crossing commenced
construction in 2011 and links to Hong Kong itself via a 12-kilometre elevated roadway.
In total, the project consumed over 420,000 tonnes of steel
and some 30,000 cubic metres of concrete.
With an original completion date of 2016, the scheme was delayed when environmental
concerns over the bridge’s impact on local dolphin populations were raised, pushing completion
back to 2017.
Due to Hong Kong and Macau’s special administrative status from mainland China, checkpoints were
required to facilitate customs and the passage of people around the region.
These checkpoints are located at either end of the bridge and serve as a means of re-setting
the traffic direction as vehicles change over to the left-hand side when entering Hong Kong
and Macau from mainland China.
While the project has been hailed by many as an engineering achievement, it has not
been without controversy, with some questioning its lengthy delays, cost overruns and worker
safety during construction.
Furthermore, in 2017, Hong Kong officials arrested a number of lab technicians after
concrete strength test results were shown to have been falsified.
Following these arrests, Hong Kong's Highways Department conducted their own tests on the
concrete and the structure was in fact deemed safe with engineers stating that the bridge
had been designed to withstand a magnitude eight earthquake, a super typhoon or a collision
with a 300,000-tonne cargo vessel.
Now completed and despite its setbacks, this 55-kilometre ocean crossing is the centrepiece
of the Pearl River Delta, a remarkable infrastructure project that better connects one of the world’s
most populated regions and opens economic opportunities for southern China.
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