Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge is still underused, two years later
The world’s longest sea crossing is celebrating its second anniversary this weekend even as traffic flow remains decimated amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The 55-kilometer Hong KongZhuhai-Macao Bridge, which connects Guangdong province and the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions, opened on Oct 24, 2018. While an average daily vehicular flow of 3,494 and 4,167 was recorded in 2018 and 2019 respectively, that number plunged to fewer than 400 vehicles a day between April and July this year, according to the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge Authority, the bridge’s operator.
However, the COVID-19 pandemic is not singularly responsible for the striking lack of traffic on the bridge. At the end of 2019, when the coronavirus had not yet reared its head, the bridge had already recorded a lower-than-expected average traffic flow of about 4,000 per day.
In 2008, when the Hong Kong government released a feasibility report for the bridge, it was estimated that on its second year of its operation, the bridge would see at least 9,200 vehicles daily.
According to a 2017 report from the Guangdong government, about HK$2.5 billion ($323 million) was to be spent yearly to operate the bridge. However, toll fees, the bridge’s major source of revenue, plummeted in 2020, owing not just to the significantly depleted traffic but also a toll waiver that was in place from late January to early May.
Toll charges on vehicles on the bridge range from 60 yuan ($9) for goods vehicles, to 300 yuan for shuttle buses. Private cars cost 150 yuan per trip. Authorities have not disclosed whether or how much the Hong Kong government pays for the bridge’s operational costs. Hong Kong shared about 43 percent of the main bridge’s construction cost.
Becky Loo Pui-ying, director of the University of Hong Kong’s Institute of Transport Studies, said the bridge’s low traffic did not result from a lack of demand. Rather, she attributed the situation to stringent controls imposed by the three local governments.
“In any case, we won’t expect a major piece of regional infrastructure, such as container ports, railway extensions and airports, to operate at their full capacity in the first two years,” she said.
Pointing out the different customs regimes and varying road transportation network capacities of the three jurisdictions, Loo called for tripartite negotiations that could help “ensure a sensible and gradual increase” in vehicular traffic across the bridge.
Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor conceded that not many Hong Kong cars were heading out by way of the bridge these days. She pointed out that a single major expressway links Hong Kong’s downtown areas to Lantau Island, where both Hong Kong International Airport and a bridge checkpoint are located.
On the sidelines of a news conference on Tuesday, Lam said her government is worried that if more local cars were granted access to the bridge, the only road to the airport — the North Lantau Highway — would be quickly congested.
“Our plan has always been that after the opening of the second expressway to Lantau Island — the Tuen Mun-Chek Lap Kok Link, which I think can come into service at the end of this year — we can consider allowing more Hong Kong cars on the bridge,” Lam said.
“There are technical problems that remain to be solved, such as whether the driver should be a holder of driver’s licenses for all three jurisdictions, whether the automobile insurance should be valid in all three jurisdictions. … We will try to hammer out these arrangements as early as possible.”
She added that it is not feasible to allow more vehicles from the Chinese mainland to enter Hong Kong through the bridge, given Hong
Kong’s limited urban space.
In a Sept 9 reply to Cally Kwong Mei-wan, a Hong Kong deputy to the National People’s Congress, the country’s top legislature, the Guangdong provincial government said about 78,000 vehicles in Guangdong and Hong Kong are eligible to use the bridge, and 90 percent of them are from Hong Kong.
As per Hong Kong government data, 15,000 Hong Kong private vehicles may use the bridge to cross the boundary to Zhuhai. Another 800 private cars can go from Hong Kong to Macao via the bridge.
For the Bay Area’s long-term development, the governments should not be hung up on an old mindset of ‘costeffectiveness’ because the bridge can bring in tremendous economic benefits far outweighing it operational cost.”
Stanley Chaing Chi-wai, chairman of Lok Ma Chau China-Hong Kong Freight Association
A matter of quotas
Ryan Ip Man-ki, head of land and housing research at policy think tank Our Hong Kong Foundation, told China Daily that the daily traffic flow along the bridge would be likely to rise if the government were to increase the quota for private cars once the much-awaited Tuen Mun-Chek Lap Kok Link opens and eases the traffic pressure on the North Lantau Highway.
The bridge’s quota criteria have been criticized as too stringent. Eligible applicants include high-tech investors, top academicians and philanthropists.
In the long run, Ip said, cargo truck flow is very important, and thus developing integrated logistics nodes in strategic locations near the bridge, such as in Tuen Mun West and Lung Kwu Tan, would be an ideal solution.
Stanley Chaing Chi-wai, chairman of Lok Ma Chau China-Hong Kong Freight Association, blamed the weak flow of goods vehicles on Macao’s poor customs infrastructure, a high eligibility threshold for a mainland automobile license, and unreasonable two-way toll fees.
The logistics expert said that given the hurdles, many carriers choose to ship their goods by sea, while ordinary travelers, rather than driving private cars through the bridge, tend to use public transportation such as the ferry service.
Comparing the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge with the Shenzhen Bay Bridge, a free-of-charge sea crossing with border checkpoints linking Hong Kong with Shenzhen, Chaing suggested a blanket waiver of toll fees.
“For the (Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao) Greater Bay Area’s long-term development, the governments should not be hung up on an old mindset of ‘cost-effectiveness’ because the bridge can bring in tremendous economic benefits far outweighing it operational cost,” he said.