Discover The Incredible Engineering Feat: The Hong Kong Zhuhai Macau Bridge
The Hong Kong-Macau Crossing
Together this is the longest ocean Crossing in the world
consisting of three cable State Bridges three man-made islands and one of the world's longest undersea tunnels.
The entire project has taken 8 years to construct at a cost of over US$15 billion.
The 55 km 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 contined to be improved on the Eastern side of the Delta however connections to the West were lacking and the most direct route involved a 160 km 4 and 1/2 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 feasibilty 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 km Chinese section of the Crossing in 2009.
This element takes the route across 22.9 9 km of elevated roadway and three cable stay Bridges before meeting a man-made Island and ducking beneath the waves into a 6.7 km undersea tunnel with an estimated 4,000 ships crossing the pear 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 in Sweden across the oron strait.
The roadway reemerges 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 km elevated roadway.
In total the project consumed over 420,000 tons of steel and some 30,000 CUM 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 are 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 resetting the traffic direction as Vehicles change over to the left hand side when entering Hong Kong on 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 labTechnics 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 8 earthquake a super typhoon or a collision with a 300,000 ton cargo vessel.
Now completed and despite its setback.
This 55 km ocean Crossing is the centerpiece 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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