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Hong Kong's third harbour crossing reaches major milestone
A major milestone is set to be reached tomorrow (Monday) on Hong Kong's third and biggest cross-harbour road tunnel, the Western Harbour Crossing.
The immersed tube of the Western Harbour Crossing will be completed when the twelfth and last unit of the crossing, set to be towed to the harbour tomorrow morning, is lowered onto the seabed. The lowering operation is due to begin at noon tomorrow and is expected to be completed by the following afternoon (Tuesday).
The Director of the New Airport Projects Co-ordination Office, Mr Billy Lam, said he was delighted with the rapid progress on construction of this major link in the Airport Core Programme (ACP).
"Construction of the Western Harbour Crossing is progressing extremely well with more than 80 per cent of the work completed so far. The project itself is expected to be completed in March next year, about three months ahead of schedule.
"The Government is now considering the possibility of an early opening in March provided that the other connecting road projects and supporting facilities are also completed by then.
"An early opening will be good news as it will help ease traffic congestion in West Kowloon and in the two existing cross-harbour tunnels," Mr Lam said.
The Director said that overall, at the end of March, the ACP was 55 per cent complete while progress on just the seven Government projects had reached the 84 per cent mark.
The two-kilometre Western Harbour Crossing will run from West Kowloon to Sai Ying Pun in the Western District.
The immersed tube section of the tunnel comprises 12 massive pre-cast concrete units each weighing 35,000 tonnes and measuring about 113 metres long, 33.5 metres wide and 8.5 metres high.
The units were cast in batches at a specially built casting basin in Shek O quarry, with each batch consisting of four units and taking about six months to
construct.