Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge
Introduction
The Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge is a civil engineering project consisting of a 55-kilometer series of bridges and tunnels connecting Hong Kong with Macao and Zhuhai, the three major cities in the Pearl River Delta and special administrative regions of China.
The total length of the bridge and tunnel is about 55 km. The main bridge measures about 30 km and the tunnel measures 6.7 km, to allow the passage of boats.
The project began construction in 2009 and was completed on November 14, 2017, taking 8 years. It was inaugurated and opened to traffic on October 23, 2018. The cost of the bridge, access roads and artificial islands was about 20 billion dollars, about 17 billion euros; The bridge alone cost about 7 billion dollars (6 billion euros).[1][2][3].
The project
Contenido
Esta infraestructura ha sido concebida para dotar de una mayor capacidad de comunicación entre dos áreas densamente pobladas separadas por el estuario de un gran río. Este enlace de 55 km[4][5] permite reducir la comunicación entre Hong Kong y Macao o Zhuhai de tres horas a tan solo treinta minutos.
The main bridge
Due to the shallow depth of the waters, an installation of elevated sections on large pillars reinforced with piles was proposed to allow the passage of small and medium-sized boats. The longest section of the bridge is 29.6 kilometers long and includes three cable-stayed sections of between 280 and 460 meters[6][7] which, by increasing its height and span, allow the passage of even larger vessels. The bridge has a three-lane dual carriageway with median separation, is prepared to withstand strong waves and has an estimated useful life of 120 years.
The tunnel
In the part closest to Hong Kong, where the largest number of high-tonnage maritime routes are located, to avoid accidents and not interrupt traffic in one direction or another, it was decided to build a tunnel that joins the different bridge sections through two artificial islands. The islands have been created with a perimeter framework based on steel cylinders and filled with earth, so that they form a stylized ovoid silhouette. Both artificial islands have also been conceived as coastal places and tourist attractions as several pods of white dolphins can be easily observed in this area.