XN000022-1995-07-21 — Page 10

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The bridge's main span stretching across the Ma Wan Channel and the side span at Ma Wan will be formed by 95 steel units. Each unit measures 18 metres long, 8 metres high and 41 metres wide and weighs up to 500 tonnes. Most units will be lifted in pairs.

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The deck units are being assembled in Dongguan, China, using steel components from Britain and Japan. The assembly work started in the summer of 1993 and all the main steelwork is substantially complete. The units are now being fitted out and painted.

The deck units will be transported by barge, generally two pairs at a time, in a 10-hour journey down the Pearl River Estuary to the bridge.

Tsing Ma Bridge is part of the Lantau Fixed Crossing, one of the 10 projects in the Airport Core Programme (ACP).

"Work on the bridge construction is now about 78 per cent finished and it will be completed on target in mid-1997," the acting Project Director of the Lantau Fixed Crossing Project Management Office of the Highways Department. Mr C K Lau, said today (Friday).

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"The aerial spinning of the two main cables started in July last year and was completed on target in April this year. A total of 160,000 kilometres long wires, enough to circle the world four times, were deployed.

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"After compaction, the two main cables now measure 1.1 metres each in diameter and will be among the longest and thickest bridge cables to be found anywhere in the world," Mr Lau said.

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Mr Lau also said lifting of the 95 deck units would be completed in about six months' time, during which part of the Ma Wan Channel would need to be closed on average for two days each week: Verse in sans it tu

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"The Highways Department is liaising closely with the contractor, the Marine Department and the Marine Police to minimise the effect on marine traffic," he said.

When completed, the Tsing Ma Bridge will be a double-decked 2.2 kilometres long suspension bridge carrying six lanes of expressway on the upper deck and two rail tracks and two single emergency traffic lanes on the enclosed lower deck for use in bad weather.

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