Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macau Bridge, Bridge-tunnel crossing in the Pearl River Delta, China
The Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macau Bridge is a 55-kilometre bridge–tunnel system across the Lingding and Jiuzhou channels of the Pearl River estuary, linking Hong Kong, Macau and Zhuhai. Its Main Bridge runs 29.6 km and combines a viaduct with three cable-stayed spans of 280 to 460 metres over the shipping lanes, plus a 6.7-km immersed tube tunnel between the Blue Dolphin and White Dolphin islands. The pale grey deck is carried on paired piers, and at the central spans two slender inverted-Y pylons rise above it, thin cables fanning down to the roadway.
Gordon Wu of Hopewell Holdings proposed a bridge-tunnel across the Pearl River estuary in 1983, inspired by the Chesapeake Bay Bridge–Tunnel; Zhuhai promoted the idea as the Lingdingyang Bridge, approved for feasibility study in December 1997. The single-Y alignment was chosen in 2005, work began on 15 December 2009, and the crossing opened on 24 October 2018 after Xi Jinping inaugurated it the day before. Nineteen workers died during construction.
The name "Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macau Bridge" was chosen in 2005 when the single-Y alignment was adopted. The crossing is operated by the HZMB Authority, which handles maintenance and management. Its opening created a "one-hour living circle" across the three places.
The crossing joins three separate border regimes, so drivers pass immigration at each end rather than once. Hong Kong-registered cars cannot enter Macau directly; the Zhuhai-Macao port island holds a 3,000-space car park for foreign vehicles and about 5,100 spaces for Macau cars. Shuttle buses also run from the Hong Kong port to the airport's SkyPier for transit passengers.
The immersed tube tunnel was built without the Dutch patent, after the Dutch firm asked ¥1.5 billion; China developed its own jointing technique in four years. The 33 tunnel elements are 37 metres wide, and the final joint was installed in a single day in May 2017.
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