“We have 18 lanes for vehicles to go in and depart from Macau respectively”,Lam Wai Hou
The Transportation Infrastructure Office (GIT) yesterday revealed the design of the new Hong Kong-Zhuhai-
Macau Bridge (Delta Bridge). According to the mainland authority responsible for building the bridge, the infrastructure is slated for completion by the end of 2016, as previously scheduled.
During a media visit organized yesterday, GIT officials revealed that they plan to start building the customs area on the Macau side early next year.
Each city in the Delta Bridge will construct its own border checkpoints. Engineer Lam Wai Hou from GIT said that the authorities are conducting geological explorations at the designated area to ensure that the design and construction of the Macau checkpoint building meets the requirements.
Mr Lam indicated that the first stage of the construction includes the checkpoint building itself, which requires a longer period to build, as well as a car park. The second stage will include the lanes and the facilities at the pick up/drop off area.
Lam Wai Hou said that the passenger capacity of the Zhuhai-Macau checkpoint will be 150,000 per day while that of the Hong Kong-Macau checkpoint will be 100,000 per day.
“Therefore, the total capacity of the checkpoint building is 250,000 people [per day]. We have 18 lanes for vehicles to go in and depart from Macau respectively. This means that arrival and departure will both have 18 lanes. We estimated that this can satisfy the border crossing capacity [sic] of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge.
The Macau border administrative area of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge will be located on the south side of the artificial island, with an area of 71.61 hectares, three-quarters of its total area.
It is estimated that the section connecting Macau and the bridge will be located to the west of the Macau checkpoint. It will be in bridge form and will connect to the Macau reclamation zone A.
Meanwhile, Wei Dong Qing from the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge Authority revealed that the bridge will adopt electronic tolls. However, it will also reserve some tolls for manual operation.
He said that it is certain that different charges will apply on different types of vehicles.
Mr Wei also said that the governments from the mainland and both SARs are still considering the border crossing policy. Since this involves legal issues and the policies of Hong Kong, Guangdong and Macau, it is still in the research stage.
In terms of the construction of the bridge itself, the authorities suggested that the construction of the eastern and western artificial islands that connect the bridge with the undersea tunnel is approaching its end.
Currently, workers have already submerged and assembled 13 sections (each 180 meters long) of the underwater tunnel, with an assembled length of more than 2,000 meters. The whole tunnel will consist of 33 sections.
The Delta Bridge has a total length of 55 kilometers. On the eastern side will be Hong Kong, with Zhuhai and Macau on the western side.
Although the bridge’s contractor previously suggested that construction progress is slightly slower than expected, it has promised that the Bridge will be in operation by 2017 as planned.JPL
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