Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macao Bridge Opens

The Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macao Bridge links the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region in the east with Zhuhai, Guangdong, and the Macao Special Administrative Region in the west. About 55 km long in all, it is a very large cross-sea transport project combining bridges, artificial islands and a tunnel. Construction of the main works began in December 2009. They consist of roughly 22.9 km of bridges, a 6.7 km undersea tunnel and two artificial islands. The immersed tunnel is made of 33 giant sections, each weighing about 80,000 tons, joined more than 40 meters below the seabed, and is the longest immersed road tunnel in the world. The project faced a complex marine environment, difficult construction and exacting technical requirements; its builders solved a series of world-class problems, and it has a design life of 120 years. To protect the Chinese white dolphin, a Grade I nationally protected species in the Pearl River estuary, strict environmental measures were taken, so that the dolphins would stay when the bridge was built. The opening ceremony was held in Zhuhai, Guangdong, on 23 October 2018, where President Xi Jinping attended and declared the bridge open; it opened to traffic the next day. After it opened, the trip from Hong Kong to Zhuhai or Macao fell from over three hours to about forty-five minutes. It is the first very large infrastructure project jointly built by Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao under “one country, two systems,” strongly promoting the Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Greater Bay Area and strengthening ties between Hong Kong, Macao and the mainland, and reflects China’s overall strength and capacity for independent innovation.