A bridge to HK’s future development

Paul Yeung outlines some of the ways in which the HZMB will significantly benefit Hong Kong and the Greater Pearl River Delta region

Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge, a cross-boundary mega bridge linking the cities, opens to the public on Wednesday morning. The bridge is so important to regional economic development that President Xi Jinping announced the opening of the bridge on Tuesday. The bridge is undoubtedly a milestone in regional integration. It is the world’s longest seacrossing bridge. To the passengers, the link will drastically cut travel time between Hong Kong, Macao and Zhuhai. For instance, it now takes only about 45 minutes to travel from the Hong Kong International Airport to Zhuhai, much shorter than the previous travel time of about four hours. The bridge will greatly facilitate the flow of cargo between Hong Kong and Western Pearl River Delta, other regions of Guangdong and Guangxi. The land route between Hong Kong’s Kwai Chung container port and Zhuhai has been effectively shortened to about one hour and 15 minutes from about 3.5 hours previously. This is an unparalleled achievement in the history of developing transportation systems.

Notwithstanding high expectations for the bridge, its planning and construction have not all gone smoothly. In a consultancy study released by the SAR government in 2008, 33,100 vehicles and 171,800 passengers were expected to cross the bridge every day by 2030. But, that prediction was lowered to 29,100 cars and 126,000 passenger trips in a 2016 study, largely due to the construction of other new transport networks in the region. The scaled-down traffic forecast raised questions about its cost effectiveness and prompted the relevant authorities to design more user-friendly measures.

But whatever impact other new transport networks might have on the bridge’s traffic volume, this won’t reduce the bridge’s significance to Hong Kong’s future development.

It will prove to be vital to the development of Lantau, Hong Kong’s largest outlying island. After the relocation of the city’s airport to Lantau, the island has been evolving from a remote area into a new developing zone with diverse developments including a new town and country parks. It is expected that the island’s development will continue in the years to come under the Sustainable Lantau Blueprint, a sustainable development model that provides land for social and economic development while emphasizing the conservation of valuable natural and cultural assets. The Lantau Tomorrow Vision unveiled by Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor in her second Policy Address revealed the SAR government’s ambition for the development of Lantau as Hong Kong’s next central business district. It is conceivable that the cross-boundary bridge has helped elevate Lantau to a strategic geographic position. It is