Concerns about bridge safety unfounded
A batch of aerial photos originally posted by a Facebook group of drone users have prompted concerns among quite a few Hong Kong people about the safety of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge. The pictures show that interlocking concrete blocks (known as a dolosse) placed around the edges of an artificial island, which connects the Hong Kong section of the bridge to a tunnel in mainland waters, have been randomly scattered.
Indeed, it is both natural and understandable that Hong Kong people pay great attention to issues concerning the safety of the bridge — as it is the world’s longest sea bridge. And predictably, it will soon become the favored route for many Hong Kong passengers, particularly commuters who need to travel between Hong Kong and the west bank of the Pearl River Delta. Once it opens the bridge will shorten the distance from Hong Kong to Macao and Zhuhai from 160 to 30 kilometers, and reduce the travel time to within half an hour.
But the case in question is in no way warranted as concerns about the bridge’s safety are totally unsubstantiated. They arose merely because some “experts” interpreted those pictures based only on their own “experiences” and immediately jumped to a conclusion — without first going through and analyzing any formal blueprints of the structure — not to mention that many of those “experts”, or rent-a-quotes in many cases, are hardly qualified to comment on the safety of the bridge, although they are experts in other fields.
It turns out the structure of the breakwater blocks is working as intended, as the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge Authority has clarified. The dolosse were deliberately arranged to be submerged in a “random manner” to alleviate pressure on the undersea tunnel, and the contractor built the project in strict accordance with the design, which had been thoroughly inspected and approved as meeting the required standards, the authority said in a statement.
The media has gained notoriety for having a special fondness for “rent-a-quotes” because they are always handy. That is understandable; they make journalists’ jobs much easier by readying comments or opinions on virtually any topic. But our experts should really be careful when offering their comments lest they risk damaging their own reputation, and turning themselves into cheap rent-a-quotes.
Of course, some anti-China media outlets have been keen to play up the so-called bridge safety issue this time. These China-bashing media outlets have never failed to exploit any chance to discredit the country just to fit their political convictions. They wouldn’t be reluctant to make up stories to smear the country and have the audacity to refuse to apologize when their stories are exposed.