With the completion of the underwater tunnel concrete pouring yesterday morning, the mainline of the Shenzhen-Zhongshan Link, a crucial infrastructure project linking the two cities across the Pearl River, is now completed, capping off a seven-year-construction period.
It is a historic milestone, marking a significant step closer to its 2024 opening, according to the Guangdong Provincial Communication Group Co. Ltd.
Upon completion, the 24-kilometer link is expected to cut the travel time between the two cities from the current two hours to about 30 minutes. At present, it takes about two hours for drivers to complete the journey via Humen or Nansha bridges, which see heavy traffic jams during peak periods.
The mega project includes two bridges, two artificial islands, and a two-way eight-lane sea tunnel, making it one of the world’s most challenging cross-sea cluster projects.
The Lingdingyang Bridge, a key part of the link, with a main span of 1,666 meters and a height of 270 meters, is the world’s largest offshore steel box girder suspension bridge.
Spanning 6.8 kilometers long and 46 meters wide, the sea tunnel is the world’s largest and widest undersea steel shell concrete tube tunnel.
A core transportation hub project in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA), the link, along with existing structures like the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge, will form a network of cross-sea and cross-river passages in the GBA, according to Deng Xiaohua, head of Guangdong Provincial Communication Group Co. Ltd.
The link connects the city cluster of Shenzhen, Dongguan, and Huizhou in the eastern part of the Pearl River Delta with the cities of Guangzhou, Zhuhai, Foshan, Zhongshan, Jiangmen, and Zhaoqing in the western part, strengthening the connectivity within the GBA.
The link is about 38 kilometers away from the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge and 30 kilometers away from Humen Bridge to the north. It also connects Zhongshan-Kaiping Expressway in the west, and Guangzhou-Shenzhen Riverside Expressway and west extension of Jihe (Airport-He’ao) Expressway in the east.
It is listed as one of the major engineering projects in the country’s 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25). The project’s construction started in late 2016.
The project is designed to have a lifespan of over 100 years.