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Lantau Link opens a new transport era
Hong Kong will enter a new era in transport when the Lantau Link, comprising two major bridges and a viaduct, opens to traffic in May.
The doubled-decked Lantau Link, built as part of the 34-kilometre transport corridor to the new international airport under construction at Chek Lap Kok, will give visitors a spectacular entrance to Hong Kong.
The Link will be officially opened by the former British Prime Minister, Baroness Thatcher, on Sunday, April 27.
Traffic will be carried on a dual three-lane expressway on the open upper deck. In case of bad weather, traffic can be diverted to two single-lane carriageways on the sheltered lower deck, which will also carry the airport railway.
Vehicles using the Link will be charged tolls, at a toll plaza located on the Lantau side.
Both bridges are the largest of their kind to carry road and rail traffic. The Tsing Ma Bridge, spanning the marine channel between Tsing Yi and Ma Wan islands, has a central span of 1,377 metres while the cable-stayed Kap Shui Mun Bridge, which connects Ma Wan and Lantau islands, has a main span of 430 metres.
"Completion of the Lantau Link gives much satisfaction to the government departments that have been involved, especially the Highways Department, which is responsible for the project, and the New Airport Projects Co-ordination Office, the co- ordinator of the Airport Core Programme projects," said the Secretary for Works, Mr Kwong Hon-sang.
"This is understandable as Hong Kong has never built such long-span bridges before and, in a way, we have emerged with great success from our venture into the unknown, thanks to the efforts of all concerned," said Mr Kwong, who served as the first Project Director of the Highways Department's Lantau Fixed Crossing Project Management Office, and then as Director of Highways before taking up his present post in 1995.
"It has been a great achievement, considering that the two contracts to build the bridges were only awarded in 1992. That we have been able to get the job done on target, and within budget, is also a tribute to the expertise of the consulting engineers, the designers and the builders," he said.