XN000022-1995-11-21 — Page 12

- 11

Construction of Tsing Ma Bridge main span well under way

Work on the Tsing Ma Bridge's main span deck is making excellent progress with more than half of the steel deck units already in place.

The Tsing Ma Bridge, the world's longest suspension bridge carrying both road and railway, is part of the Lantau Fixed Crossing, one of the 10 projects in the Airport Core Programme (ACP).

The Project Director of the Lantau Fixed Crossing Project Management Office of the Highways Department, Mr C K Lau, said he was very pleased with the work progress of the Tsing Ma Bridge.

"Work on the bridge construction is now about 80 per cent finished, and it is scheduled to be completed in mid-1997," he noted.

Mr Lau expected the lifting of all the 95 deck units would be completed in the spring of next year. This will be followed by joining up the sections by welding, electrical and mechanical works, and work on public lighting and road surfacing.

The bridge's main span across the Ma Wan Channel and the side span at Ma Wan are being formed by a total of 95 steel units. Each unit measures 18 metres long, eight metres high and 41 metres wide, and weighs up to 500 tonnes. Most units are joined in pairs to form a 36-metre long and 1,000-tonne section for lifting operations.

The deck units are being assembled in Dongguan, China by using steel components from Britain and Japan. The assembly work started in the summer of 1993, and the units were fitted out and painted before being transported to Hong Kong,

The deck units are transported by barge, normally two 36-metre sections at a time, in a 10-hour journey down the Pearl River Estuary to the site of the bridge.

On completion in 1997, the Tsing Ma Bridge will be a double-decked 2,2- kilometre long suspension bridge carrying a six-lane 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.

Together with the 820-metre long Kap Shui Mun cable-stayed bridge and the Ma Wan Viaduct, the Tsing Ma Bridge will form the Lantau Fixed Crossing linking Lantau Island to urban Kowloon and Hong Kong Island.