No less than one million yuan (US$145,000) a day of Chinese taxpayers’ money has been spent this year on a 50-kilometer bridge that appears to be plagued with problems and years from opening.
The Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge authority has been saddled with the hefty outlay on daily maintenance of the mega bridge, while wondering when cars, coaches and container lorries can start plying the sea-crossing shortcut that took eight years and a grand total of 76.2 billion yuan to build.
The maintenance cost include minor repair work like periodical anti-corrosion coatings and replacing waterproof adhesive dressings inside a tunnel area, as well as the salaries for staff and contracted workers, according to an official with the bridge authority based in the city of Zhuhai in Guangdong province. He added that the figure was “on the conservative side” as more work is required during the summer typhoon season.
Traffic has been hard to spot on the empty bridge hailed as a wonder of modern engineering, which also includes two artificial islands where the bridge snakes beneath the water in a 6,648-meter tunnel under one of the world’s busiest waterways.
Previous reports suggested the grand opening had been rescheduled to August, yet it appears that will be missed, again.
The official put the blame on delays and cost overruns of feeder lines at the Hong Kong end as well as red tape and shambolic management by the city’s Highways Department.
The bridge is believed to be Chinese President Xi Jinping’s “pet project” to implement the newly coined Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area concept. It was Xi’s brainchild to join the two former European colonies and the affluent Pearl River Delta in Guangdong into an economic dynamo to take on San Francisco, Tokyo and New York.
Yet Beijing has long frowned on the fact that construction has been stuck in the slow lane and it has been suggested that it was Xi’s wish to ride the bridge in his limo from Hong Kong to Zhuhai and Macau to officially open it to traffic on the 20th anniversary of the city’s return from London to Beijing in July 2017.
Yet apparently Xi’s hopes went down the tubes as the president only had a few glimpses of the silhouette of the bridge through the billowing dust at a construction site at the Hong Kong end during his inspection last year.
Back then Xi was assured that the work would be completed for commissioning by the end of 2017 to avoid holding back the bridge’s much awaited opening. Yet more than one year later the backlog of work is still progressing at a snail’s pace.
The Hong Kong-based Oriental Daily News revealed earlier this week that completion of a supporting tunnel project linking the bridge to the city’s New Territories would not be up and running until 2020 at the earliest and the opening of another bridge feeder line to the existing road network had also been postponed to 2019.
As a stop-gap measure, traffic on and off the bridge would be diverted via an alternative road network on the nearby Hong Kong airport island, exacerbating the clogged roads serving the busy aviation hub and a neighboring new town.
Meanwhile, Chinese state media hype about the bridge was also marred by a string of scandals and suspected construction flaws ranging from collapsing seawalls and tetrapods meant to protect the bridge’s artificial islands to severe seepage problems inside a major immigration hall on another sinking manmade island in Hong Kong waters.
The prospect of recouping the bridge’s staggering investment is becoming murky as well, with a limited number of cars and trucks issued with special permits to use the bridge, on top of forecasts about slackening growth in usage because the bourgeoning Chinese tech hub of Shenzhen is revving up construction of its Shenzhen-Zhongshan link that may lure away a big chunk of traffic.
Shenzhen was denied having a landing point of its own when Hong Kong, Macau and Zhuhai discussed the design and layout of the bridge 10 years ago.
Read more: Tetrapods protecting bridge project ‘collapsing, drifting’
Frank must be trilled of the problems facing the construction of the bridge in the bay area. Let him continue to engage in his fantasy. But know this, once the problems is resolved, the area will be one of the most vibrant bay on earth.
BRI will also require (small weaponed) chinese military to stop terrorist attacks
The main purpose of these around the bay bridges is to provide a barrier against foreign invasions, eg aircraft carrier and its fleet of war ships. That purpose has been achieved. HK is fast becoming a slow old man bickering on every little thing and will trend down as its historic significances of deep sea port to smuggle Mainland goods out when China was under US lead economic sanctions.
Regarding the bridge, I think China has bitten off more than it can chew. The project should have been constructed in stages., using the first stage as a testing ground.
I think everything should be fine. Honestly, a delay of 6 months to one year for this size of projects is nothing because it involved the Hong Kong side which has learned a lot of the "delay art" from the West. If it were the US, this type of delay is normal even at the discussion phase, which is before the planning phase, which is before the construction phase…
Richard Truong
Hehehe. ..
Even you yourself don’t believe what you’ve written!
This article is so crassly anti-China, it is faintly humorous
1. Zhongshan is in mainland China, and consequently a link between it and Shenzhen is unlikely to "lure away a big chunk of traffic" from Hong Kong. The route across the Pearly River transiting Shenzhen is in Dongguan, and has been open since the late 1920’s
2. Why the repeated reference to "artificial islands"? Do they violate UNCLOS or somehow impede "innocent passage"? Surely, time for some gunboats (which were once frequent visitors to the Pearl River in happier colonial times)
3. "It was Xi’s brainchild to join the two former European colonies and the affluent Pearl River Delta in Guangdong into an economic dynamo to take on San Francisco, Tokyo and New York."
FACTS:
a. The Pearl River Delta is one of the world’s most successful economies. Its GDP, at more than $1.2 trillion, is bigger than that of Indonesia. It has been growing at an average rate of 12% a year for the past decade. As a global trading partner, the region is outranked only by the US and Germany https://www.forbes.com/sites/edfuller/2017/10/02/chinas-crown-jewel-the-pearl-river-delta/#5cad43765047
If you include Hong Kong, the figure rises by $416 bio to over $1.6 trillion (see wikipedia link below)
b. San Francisco Bay economy is 19th largest globally at $748 billion https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/Bay-Area-Economy-is-Now-19th-Largest-in-the-World-487828891.html
This is less than HALF the combined GDP of the Pearl River Delta
c. The GDP of New York and Tokyo each stand at $1.4 trillion https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cities_by_GDP
This is less than the $1.6 trillion GDP of the combined Pearl River Delta
FOOTNOTE:
The Editors of ATimes may be encouraged to denigrate anything and everything to do with China, but for all the money they are receiving, you could surely at least afford to check the facts before blurting ill-informed propaganda
The San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge (in California) was delayed FIVE YEARS.
So a (currently) 6 month delay on China’s Bridge is nothing to scoff at.
Especially when you realized the Californian bridge was only 624m long, where as the Chinese bridge is 50km long.
what a stupid article, the author knows nothing about this bridge. How could Asia Time let this be published here. It claims: "Shenzhen was denied having a landing point of its own when Hong Kong, Macau and Zhuhai discussed the design and layout of the bridge 10 years ago." Just take look a of the map. Where is Shenzhen? How could Shenzhen be connedted by this bridge.?
Does this Frank guy even know the nature of infrastructure project of this magnitude, or is he simply ignoring that fact?
You will need to invest large sum of money for infrastructure projects for the benefit of immediate utility and try to recoup the cost over the years. That’s just how infrastructure project works. The America spent hugely and invested in its highway system in the middle of last century, and the generations after benefit handsomely. And those benefits have obviously outweighted the initial investment over the years.
Elephant Project.
Concrete, concrete, everywhere……. Few years ago, I used to be a fan of Chinese mega-projects; now, I feel the other way. Is there no alternative route to development?
https://twitter.com/PDChina/status/1040864088140636160