[ad_1]
Hong Kong (dpa) – The largest sea bridge in the world between Hong Kong and mainland China has been opened, overshadowed by controversy. At a ceremony in Zhuhai, the head of state and Chinese party Xi Jinping personally unveiled Wednesday the Super Bridge.
Megaproject connects Asian economic and financial metropolis to player's paradise macao and the Special Economic Zone of South China, Zhuhai.
After nine years of construction, the bridge in the Pearl River Delta will create a large economic zone with Hong Kong and the prosperous province of Guangdong. The former British colony, Hong Kong, and the former Portuguese enclave, Macau, are better integrated with the connection with the People's Republic, clarified China Political significance of Deputy Prime Minister Han Zheng. "It facilitates trade and commerce in all three places."
The Chinese government cost 120 billion yuan, or 15 billion euros. The 55 km long connection consists of a winding bridge and a 6.7 km long submarine tunnel between two artificial islands.
Not only because of two years of construction delays, cost overruns, lack of transparency, corruption and the death of ten construction workers on Hong Kong alone, the project is controversial. Many of the seven million Hong Kong residents fear China's greater desire for greater integration in the People's Republic and prefer to preserve their insularity and their special role.
Since the return to China of the former British Crown Colony in 1997, Hong Kong has been governed autonomously on its own sovereign territory as a special administrative region of China. Following the same pattern, the former Portuguese enclave of Macao is managed independently since returning to China in 1999.
The bridge reduces by several hours the travel time of people and cargo to the People's Republic. Today, it takes four hours between Hong Kong Airport and Zhuhai; in the future it will be 45 minutes. From the container port of Hong Kong to the 1.6 million people of Zhuhai, it will take more than 3 hours and a half instead of 75 minutes.
However, the main access route to the Hong Kong Harbor Bridge will not be completed until next year, which adds to the controversy surrounding the project. It is therefore feared that existing roads will be overloaded by additional traffic. Hong Kong is one of the largest container ports in the world.
It is also controversial that the bridge can only be traveled by car with special permits. Most travelers must take special buses to use the bridge. Travel time in the famous casino paradise Macao has not improved much, as it is only an hour by ferry from Hong Kong.
The bridge will also connect Shenzhen, with its 13 million inhabitants on the other side of the border, and Guangzhou, the capital of the province, with 14 million residents and more. other flourishing cities of the region, more closely with Hong Kong. After opening a new high-speed rail line with Hong Kong a month ago, the Super Bridge is the next step.
But critics are not convinced. Many argue that Hong Kong has spent better money on more urgent social projects in the city. "Everything is superfluous," said Claudia Mo, opposition representative in the Legislative and Democratic Council, who must also bear rising costs. "We have land, sea and air links in every way we want, why do we also need a bridge?"
The Hong Kong government has defended cost overruns with unforeseen problems. She cited "complicated conditions for offshore construction, construction difficulties, increased labor costs and materials, and changes in design and construction plans".
The Hong Kong critic and civil engineer, Albert Lai, said that many of these problems could have been avoided by improving the planning and survey of the site. The political pressure to complete the bridge as quickly as possible has forced engineers to act in a "risky" way. In addition, the Hong Kong government had adopted a too "casual" attitude towards the bridge, on which the Chinese side was leading.
The contractor was allowed to change the design and construction between the two. Also had been watched far to security breaches. "It's a big problem," Lai said. "The reason is the decline in the quality of civil servants and, to a lesser extent, the weakness of Hong Kong."
Critics have also seen far too much interference with nature. The construction of the bridge has reduced the population of the endangered and rare white dolphin to 40 percent, only a few dozen, the Dolphin Conservation Society reported. The rather pink dolphin is a symbol of Hong Kong and in 1997 was also the official mascot of the return to China. He is now withdrawing farther and farther from the waters of Hong Kong.
China Daily
Government Transportation Database
RTHK
SCMP
bridge authority
Source link
