The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

Tuen Chi Tunnel|The 44.8 billion project was delayed for 4 years without refuting the "most failed step" of Tuen Mun West Bypass

2020-12-27T00:40:41.192Z


The Chek Lap Kok Link, Tuen Mun, has a total length of about 9 kilometers. Due to construction delays, it was "cut pieces" and opened to traffic. The 1.6-kilometer South Link was opened to traffic in 2018, and the remaining North Link was finally opened today (27th). New to traffic


Social News

Written by: Zhong Yan

2020-12-27 08:30

Last update date: 2020-12-27 08:30

The Chek Lap Kok Link, Tuen Mun, has a total length of about 9 kilometers. Due to construction delays, it was "cut pieces" and opened to traffic. The 1.6-kilometer South Link was opened to traffic in 2018, and the remaining North Link was finally opened today (27th).

The new north connecting road to traffic includes a five-kilometer submarine road tunnel (Tun Chi Tunnel), which connects the artificial island of the Hong Kong Port of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge to the south of Tuen Mun.

The new tunnel sets records for the longest and deepest road tunnel in Hong Kong.

The Tuen Mun Chek Lap Kok Link Project, which cost 44.8 billion yuan, was proposed as early as in the 2007 Policy Address. It was expected to be completed in 2016 together with the "Tuen Mun West Bypass". The cost of the two projects is estimated to exceed 20 billion yuan. .

However, when the project applied for funding from the Legislative Council, the cost of the project had risen sharply, the unit cost was estimated to be more than doubled, and the opening of the whole line was delayed by 4 years.

The Tuen Chi Tunnel was opened to traffic today. The "Tuen Mun West Bypass", which was originally used as a supporting road, has only recently been announced for its alignment. It will become a "Tuen Mun Bypass" that bypasses Tuen Mun East. It is expected to be "20 years late". It will not be completed until about 2036.

The bypass route for the feeder fails, and new traffic may enter the Tuen Mun area, creating a traffic bottleneck.

Some members of the Legislative Council described that the delay in the detour caused the lack of important infrastructure facilities and "the most failed step in a game of chess."

Toll free for the 6th “first” of the Tunchi Tunnel

Before the Tun Chi Tunnel opened to traffic, the government promoted many pioneering works of the new tunnel.

The Tunchi Tunnel has not only set the record for the longest and deepest road tunnel in Hong Kong, but also has 4 "firsts", including the first drilling of a drill tunnel under the seabed; the first construction with saturated high-pressure technology, and the rotation of engineering personnel is arranged at the bottom of the seabed. Pressure chambers are set up on the construction site.

The new tunnel is also the first tunnel with a corridor for utility facilities at the bottom of the vehicular tunnel. The world's largest tunnel boring machine was also used during construction.

The Tuen Chi Tunnel was originally designed as a toll road. Toll booths were set up at the entrance and exit of Tuen Mun.

However, the Hong Kong government announced in 2019 that tolls for the Lantau Link and Tun Chi Link Road were exempted. The 5.4 hectares of Tun Chi Tunnel Toll Plaza and related projects have cost 3.05 billion to build. Footbridges and toll booths have been built, but The use of the "policy turn" needs to be changed urgently.

The land near the toll plaza has been converted to a franchised bus factory and bus parking lot.

Earlier, the tunnel management contract approved by the Transport Department was awarded by a transportation infrastructure management company. The four-year management, operation and maintenance contract has a value of 299 million yuan.

The Tunchi Tunnel will be opened to traffic on December 27 to relieve 10% of the traffic flow of Tun Gong and 20% of the traffic flow of the Lantau Link

Good news from Tung Chung!

The Lantau Link will turn to free toll plaza lanes to be halved from 0:00 on December 27

(01 drawing)

Engineering problems caused delays

The development of the Tunchi Tunnel was twists and turns. Due to the reclamation project of the artificial island of the bridge, the contractor had to reduce the alignment of some tunnels by 10 meters and modify the design during the construction of the tunnel.

As for the original plan, the "Tuen Mun West Bypass" as a supporting link near the Tuen Mun entrance and exit of the Tuen Chi Tunnel was originally expected to open to traffic together with the Tuen Chi Tunnel, but it has been in the research stage.

It was only recently reported that the authorities decided to change the alignment and replace it with the construction of a "Tuen Mun Bypass" bypassing Tuen Mun East. However, the bypass is expected to be completed in about 2036.

The Deputy Chairman of the Transport Panel of the Legislative Council, Chen Heng-pin, believes that when the Tuen Chi Tunnel was opened to traffic, the transportation facilities were not satisfactory, and the Tuen Mun Bypass was lacking to smooth the traffic of Tuen Mun Wong Chu Road and Lung Fu Road. .

He said that after the tunnel is opened to traffic, the two roads will shoulder a huge traffic volume. Vehicles in the direction of Yuen Long and Tuen Mun will need to travel on these two sections of roads. The traffic is already busy and there are many large trucks coming and going. Traffic bottlenecks.

Tuen Mun Bypass and Route 11 Alignment Exposure News: The two trunk roads will start to open to traffic before 2036

Longfu Road and Huangzhu Road improvement works will take more than 10 years

According to the forecast of the Transport Department, the traffic situation on Wong Chu Road will remain at a controllable level until 2026. However, Chen Heng-pin has reservations about this. He believes that Wong Chu Road was originally designed instead of a major arterial road. The original design requires Tuen Mun West Bypass Unblock.

He went on to say that the government will plan the Tuen Mun Bypass in the near future, including the widening of Lung Fu Road, Wong Chu Road and Hai Wing Road.

However, Chen criticized that the government was too late to plan, and later realized that the Tunchi Tunnel is a huge infrastructure project and should never be affected by the lack of individual sections and supporting facilities. "It seems that there are chickens but no soy sauce."



"Hong Kong 01" received news earlier that the government plans to build Route 11 and Tuen Mun Bypass. At the same time, it will expand and improve Lung Fu Road, Huang Zhu Road and Hai Wing Road before the two main roads are opened to traffic.

However, the related improvement works are still subject to investigation, study and preliminary design. It is expected to be completed in 10 years and the target is to be completed by 2031.

01News

Tuen Chi Road Tuen Mun Hong Kong International Airport

Source: hk1

All news articles on 2020-12-27

You may like

News/Politics 2024-03-12T10:25:57.343Z
News/Politics 2024-02-24T07:12:36.059Z

Trends 24h

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.