President Xi Jinping on Tuesday announced the opening of the world's longest cross-sea bridge, which connects the mainland province of Guangdong with the country's two special administrative regions, Hong Kong and Macao.
Praising builders of the bridge for breaking a number of world records, Xi said they demonstrate the nation's spirit of striving to overcome any difficulties, the national strength, the innovative ability, and the aspiration to be the world's best.
The bridge should not only be structurally sound but also well managed, in a bid to contribute to the development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, he said.
The Y-shaped construction spans over the Lingding Channel in south China meandering for 55 km. Built with an investment of 126.9 billion yuan or about 18.3 billion U.S. dollars, the gigantic project consisting of a series of bridges, artificial islands and a tunnel facilitates travel that used to be separated by channels.
The mega-bridge has a 6.7-km underwater tunnel. It links the three economic heavy-weights that each has different social systems, economic structures and even languages.
With the swift journeys, the economic belt of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area has taken shape and become an economic circle that can be completed in an hour, uniting Hong Kong's financial services, Guangdong's industrial manufacturing and Macao's entertainment industry.
During the nine-year bridge construction period, a total of 2,367 sightings of dolphins were reported, with no injuries of any dolphins reported. Local fishermen said the building of the bridge did not cause a large impact on the life of the mammals.
With the bridge officially open to public traffic Wednesday, a coach service will link the three destinations. A bus starting from the Hong Kong Boundary Crossing Facilities can reach Zhuhai in about 40 minutes.
Liu Xiaodong, a native of Yangzhou, Jiangsu province, and the chief designer of the Bridge Island Project, witnessed the historical moment of the opening ceremony of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge. As the chief designer of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge Island Project, he and his team have repeatedly explored and used 33 giant immersed pipes to form a submarine tunnel, and made every immersed pipe drip without leaking, making it the largest buried depth in the world today. The immersed tunnel with the highest technical difficulty has also created a miracle of "zero error".
Wuxi Fasten Group provided more than 2,400 tons of high-strength and durable cable stays for the three navigation bridges of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge. In order to ensure the ultra-high strength of the stay cable, Fasten has specially developed zinc-aluminum alloy coated high-strength steel wire, setting a record in China.
Wuxi Far East Cable provides about three-fifths of the intelligent transportation cables, totaling nearly 30 kilometers of the total length of the bridge. The cables are applied to the facilities for bridge lighting, power supply systems and the distribution and charging communication center.
Changzhou Shangshang Cable has provided a perfect power supply solution to the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge by undertaking the design, production and installation of cable on the artificial island.
(Source: ourjiangsu.com)
