The Colossal Failure of the World's Longest Sea Bridge
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- čas přidán 15. 05. 2024
- Join us as we unravel the story of the Hong Kong-Macau-Zhuhai Bridge, the world's longest sea bridge, and the challenges that turned this ambitious project into a colossal failure. From soaring costs and environmental impacts to political issues and underutilization, we explore the myriad of reasons behind the bridge's struggles. But is there hope for the future? Watch till the end to find out! Don't forget to like, comment, and subscribe for more amazing content.
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Chapters
0:00 Introduction
0:20 Idea
3:10 Failure
11:26 Future
#China #construction #infrastructure #HongKongMacauZhuhaiBridge #WorldsLongestSeaBridge #InfrastructureFails #EngineeringChallenges #FutureofTransport - Věda a technologie
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I prefer took a flight or a boat. If the bridge is only 10 to 15 Km, I think I will be fine.
was the rail link ever an option ?
Paint the bridge white and give it trunk system, then it really will be a white elephant.
So it's not a technical or engineering failure, it's just a bureaucratic failure.
agreed asking local politicians to give up power if futile
and there is a story about a guy coming from Taiwan to hong kong getting stopped at border but pointed out that according to the party china and taiwan are the same country, so why do you need a visa/passport to trave between 2 cities in same country
built to improve trade so why customs controls?
Wait for some years, when both sides no more check points, Chinese always plan ahead.
I would say an 80 percent increase in cost, an eroding island, and poorly located immigration connections makes it all three - technical, engineering and bureaucratic.
Also, commercial.
@@suhongpan5459 yes possible
The worst problem is that both immigration checkpoints in Hong Kong and Macau are based on the very edge of the cities, while ferry terminals are located at the heart of both cities, if you include the travel time to the immigration checkpoints at both sides, the trip will take longer than going by ferry.
Why would there be immigration points when it is all China?
Which brings us to our next point. This bridge is nothing more than a money laundering operation.
A trip on this bridge is a fantastic experience.
Fully agree, it's quite a surreal experience.
@@globeex My girlfriend was quizzed by Hong Kong immigration on the way back and everyone was laughing as we were about the only car they'd seen for an hour and they admitted they just wanted to look like they were doing some work.
Pre-pandemic, I flew over this bridge a couple of times on the approach to Hong Kong. Beautiful bridge, but I only needed my two hands to count the number of vehicles I saw.
It didn't change much since then. We drove over the bridge a few weeks ago by bus. It feels almost abandoned.
The ferry service between HK and Macau was very efficient. Multiple ferries went all day and not only quickly but on time.
Also the ferry trips were very scenic and satisfying
$40 a trip is cheap for 80Km , $0.50 per Km. I live on the Isle of Wight and a 8Km trip to the UK mainland is over £100, which is over $16/Km .
Yes, I have visited HK multiple times and taken the Ferry. They are efficient and the terminus is conveniently located right in TST on the HK side. I don't remember as much about the Macau side, but that immigration was quick and I was in the city in minutes. The bridge is more symbolic than anything else right now.
@@AMD7027 there will be one major advantage; nor more watching timetables and one can take the own car to stay comfortably mobile.
@@Veeger seriously, 100GBP?! Surely that's at least return and with a car?
It just reminds me how blessed we are in the EU to have the visa free Schengen area which allows us to travel between all participating countries without any obstacles and delays.
Yeah that’s why Europe is infested with illegals and criminals from all over.
Well, there was a place you could only reach by ferry, hovercraft or airplane... until they built a tunnel 😂
@@xavermooshammer4816 But that place isn't part of Schengen anymore 😜
@@TheSherlockk I was entirely their choice to cut off their own jewels down there to spite their wife. 🤭
@@TheSherlockk That place is not "not part of Schengen anymore" ... it has *never been* part of the Schengen area.
(assuming that you are talking about the UK / Great Britain)
It seems incredible that such an adventurous engineering accomplishment should have been undertaken before the the consequent problems had been thrashed out.
Doesn't surprise me. The UK have done exactly the same with the vanity project known as HS2.
Like any construction project you are faced with new unexpected challengers that you have to deal with and adapt to. That is literally part of building anything including basic housing.
It’s not a failure bc it’s construction wasn’t economically but political it was a way to show and remind HK and Macao residents that they are attached to the mainland. It’s more symbolic then anything and in this regard the bridge was a total success
Politically motivated construction of infrastructure are much more often than not a failure in itself.We've seen a lot of underutilized infrastructure in the West as well.
@@Gearparadummies Like?
@@andrekoster9708 Two airports in Spain with no flights. Highways going bankrupt because nobody uses them. Train lines with less than 5% of passenger capacity...The list is very, very long. And that's only in Southern Europe.
@@Gearparadummies Thanks.
The bridge is a symbol that China owns HK. It's also handy if China ever decides to roll tanks and troops into HK. If they were serious about public transport then they would have included a rail line on that bridge. Anyhow, I'm sure that the rich folks and the politicians enjoy the convenience of having a big, open highway to themselves.
If you've ever been to Hong Kong, you'll know that only the super rich own private cars. Space is at such a premium in Hong Kong, that owning a parking spot is seen often as an extreme expense that no one would want to own. So a bridge that relies on car traffic out of Hong Kong, is just ridiculous.
Bus and car shuttles back and forth over the bridge accomplish the same.
Skeptical Chris = Negative Nancy
@@f430ferrari5 Ferries are more convenient, cheaper, and arguably faster, since no matter what, all those forms still need to undergo customs check, the biggest barrier. The only thing that would have been faster and cheaper is if the put in a railway on the bridge, which they didn't. So basically the only people who would use it are those rich enough to buy cars. In other words, like most Chinese mega projects, it was solely a vanity project started by the rich, created for the rich, used only by the rich, and paid for by public taxes.
So business as usually for a government.
@@darkevilazn you missed the part where it’s not easy loading heavy luggage and items via the ferries. This is where the alternative helps.
It don’t matter if it’s for the rich either. The poor or middle class is probably benefiting from lighter traffic.
In the US there are toll roads or short cuts. Same difference. Only the rich would pay but it still lightens up traffic.
More people own cars in Hong Kong than you can imagine.
Car ownership is quite common among regular ppl in HK and ShenZhen, and of course I'm talking about normal cars like Toyota, Honda, VW, etc. The super rich you referring to own exotic cars.
It seems that a lot of consequences and potential problems were overlooked at the beginning. That's why making lists is so important. This reminds of surgeons who have left surgical instruments inside patients simply because they thought they were too smart to forget anything. Nurses solved the problem by creating checklists.
In the airforce we had tool boards with the tool shapes cut out of dayglow orange as an aid to stop tools being left inside aircraft.
I worked on a project where the architect forgot, that to get power to the other side of the building, you had to have a travel path for cables, or perhaps he was from the future where power was wireless.
@@boblordylordyhowiemy dad was re-creating building project, because architect forgot support beams, which resulted in door height of 1.4 meter upon adding them 😂
I once heard an American surgeon claiming that he had invented checklists - this was more than 50 years after they were introduced by the aviation industry !
It's actually the responsibility of the scrub nurse to count instruments before closing the incision. If instruments are left inside the patient, it's the nurses fault.
They should have made a rail bridge or perhaps a combination bridge, road and rail
I was absolutely astounded to see this giant bridge in the middle of the ocean as I approached the airport during my one and only trip to Hong Kong in 2018!
Well this bridge would have been a failure if this was designed with people in mind. But this is strategic investment which allows the PLA to easily reach Hong Kong in times of unrest. From the military standpoint this bridge serves its prupose well. I don't see many channels covering this from a different POV.
Good point.
Bridge would be KOd if China got involved in a war with a major power.
Macau drives on the left. When I visited there, back in the early 1980s and crossed into China, the bus had to cross over to the right as it crossed the border
$18 billion is not bad. A project of that scope here in the US would cost 5-10 times more.
And lose 5-10 times more money.
@@gaoxiaen1$60 billion of US taxpayers just approved for a FAILURE OF UKRAINE. From this perspective, $16 billion is an insanely great investment.
@@samsun01 PUTIN'S UNPROVOKED WAR HAS FAILED! The struggle against tyranny in Europe is worthwhile. Russia has failed in every one of its goals since it started this unprovoked invasion. HK's huge investment in an unused white elephant bridge is not smart, especially when China's economy is collapsing.
Ww had always a great time travelling on the Hong Kong Zhuhai Macao Bridge. Our friends and Relatives from other Countries were so proud and happy marveling at being on the longest Bridge in the World. And it only took around 45 minutes in a super comfortable Bus and the travel was a breeze. And Immigration doesnt take more than 2 minutes.. HZMB is truly a Marvel of this World. Great 🇨🇳
If globeEX calls this mega project a "colossal failure" then let's have more of them!!! Meanwhile in the USA's Silicon Valley they still can't get a high speed rail link going after decades of promising; and dozens if not hundreds of US bridges across the country are thought to be at risk of collapse.This bridge linking Macau and Hong Kong is an infrastructure marvel and a phenomenal engineering feat. Well done to the planners, engineers and government officers who helped make this project go from start to finish. Economic payback for projects of this scale doesn't happen in a few short years from opening but is recouped over a far longer time horizon and the Chinese are well aware of this. In the years to come its true value will come to be realised.
It is hardly a colossal failure. This is for the future when the region becomes a 100+ million super mega city.
LOL! The only reason that the area would become a mega-city is because of people waiting to escape the PRC.
The Hong Kong -Zhuhai-Macau bridge is a huge project . This bridge was opened in February 2018. In 2019-2020 there was riots and chaos in Hong Kong in an attempted colour revolution aimed at the Mainland Central Government. Then the thrird factor was the 2020 - 2022 disruptions of the COVID_19 pandemic across China, and the world.. The Covid-19 caused serious shut down of large parts of China including Hong Kong and Macau with travel bans only eased in February -May 2023. We are still not able to freely travel to China in June 2023 for reasons not unexpected in a recovery . All our company'd procurements had been deferred for 4 years today. In planning manufacturing investment and many serious business takes years, and then there is the testing, verification and acceptance. Today in June 2023 is quite wrong and pre-mature to assert the the Hong Kong -Zhuhai-Macau cross -sea bridge is a "colossal failure" . It has not yet begun to fight. A little more time please. In consideration of the limited space here your analysis is good nevertheless . Many thanks.
Not true about not allowing LHD in Hong Kong, they are often imported and driven. The restriction for the bridge is the difficulty of getting a permit. You have to hold a permit to use the bridge and only 3000 have been issued on the mainland.
Reckon it's more a problem of where to park their vehicles once they've arrived! Why it was never envisaged to incorporate rail-services seems rather incompetent!
amazing !!! The Intelligent Chinese discovered that vehicles from macao cant enter Hong Kong only after completing the bridge.
Watching this video...where was this so called ''Failure'' Its Beautiful and awesome
Firstly, how is it beautiful, when there isn't any outstanding or unique architectural feature? Secondly. how does being "beautiful" negate the fact that it is underused and a fiscal failure?
@@huaiwei Beautiful the Length and design..The Bridgeis for ever..Billions not even born yet will use it...Fiscally who cares how much it costs...it still costs a lot less than many other Infrastructural projects
@@jennyohara4011 Billions??? with 9000 a day it wil take 300 years to get to 1 billion
A technicality here, Macau drives on the left (steering wheel on the right) just like Hong Kong, so your comment at 7:11 is incorrect. The scenario is more like this, you start off in Macau driving on the left, once you exited the Macau zone past immigration, the lanes switch to the right as the territory in the middle of the sea belongs to China. Lanes continue to the on the right through the tunnels until you approach the HK immigration around the HK airport and once you pass immigration the lanes go back to the left.
I knew of the bridge but I found this video gave me a lot more information and understanding of how things really are. Thanks, appreciated in gaining more knowledge.
The original concept was to link HK with Zhuhai and areas to the west. HK have a large shipping port and air freight facilities. The bridge would make the development of Zhuhai and beyond to be more attractive.
"it is a total success, what the heck are you talking about" It was built to be a transport connection, but is so under utilised that it's success as a road bridge is being questioned.
One vehicle per minute is not a success !
An overnight success would have led to over night failures in other areas which was once the route.
Folks like you would never understand this.
Travelers stopping by rest stop areas along that original 4 hour route would see a massive decrease in business. Same for gas stations.
Sure traffic would improve in those areas but at what sacrifice.
We also had Covid which restricted travel.
Folks like you are just jealous haters.
Part of the solution is simply just having taxis and buses shuttle back and forth. Electric?
Moving traffic away from one area to another can be a good thing. It can also be a bad thing.
Most construction projects of this scale go over budget for many reasons. I think it is a beautiful bridge and will help the economy in the long run.
How does being "beautiful" overcome the problem of it being underutilised and a fiscal failure? And meanwhile, "beautiful"? Really?
If it is not used it is a lemon
@@ldnwholesale8552 ok, you probably know more about it. I am not from the area. Thanks and good luck.
We-New Orleans-have a 40km bridge over a lake-Lake Ponchatrain -it is a pretty low bridge- and the lake is not too deep-maybe not 100 feet maximum-so it is no
engineering marvel-weather mild most of the time-except hurricanes-when weather is END OF WORLD BAD-
All the border crossing-surprise to me-thought Hong Kong fully integrated into China-same story Macau-guess not. And folks don't expect tp drive their own car across-
USA is still a car centric country-despite the cost and inconvenience-and with the green push-that might continue if the GREEN ENERGY actually becomes GREEN
as in wind solar-not electricity made with methane or oil-that sure as hell is not green.
Most important the project is completed. It is all about engineering knowledge. Today, China have moved from so-called 'tofu' projects to mega infrastructure recognition all over the world. China build roads, bridges, railways even in rural areas backed up by World Bank and has lifted nearly 800 million people out of poverty after four decades.
Really insightful video. Makes me wonder why the commuter journey, including all the immigration procedures, weren't thought through while the bridge was being built. My family took the bus from the HKIA terminal to Macau some years back. The bridge was extremely impressive! Hope that things get sorted out and the bridge can be put to good use to link up the three cities.
the bridge is of good use, it s used by thousands of local people everyday. it s just that the ferries are very efficient and a lot of people don't use the bridge as the only way for travel. but bridge itself is a very good way for travel too.
This is a very ambitious & chellenging project, and there is always leason to learn. This allow China to learn bridge building with such chellenging issues.
How much time do I have to use the bridge today compared to drive around the Bay Area ? Railway connection of course this would have been great, but increased the budget a lo!
I've used the bridge on several occasions and although you go through 2 immigration points neither had held me up for more than a few minutes, just showed proper passport/paperwork. The use of the bridge is limited to vehicles that have a permit so mostly restricted to busses and hire limousines, although some private cars do travel between the cities (just takes longer to go through inspections).
What is the purpose of the permit?
Uncertain as to why the need for a permit except I'm aware they limit it to 400 private vehicles per day
One reason for the restrictions is because mainland China and HK drives on different sides of the road. HK also have very congested roads. Imagine if there are no restrictions and tourists were able to go to HK in their cars freely.
The bridge only recently certified safe tonnes opened to public use
A connection problem when ferries did the crossing in 1 hour?...
When I first read the title, I was expecting to see a bridge that is about to collapse or water leaking into the tunnel. Quite on the contrary, the bridge was an engineering marvel, despite a few technical and budgetary challenges during construction. These are to be expect for project this size and complexity.
You miss the success of just being able to build it. A state of the art engineering maevel...WOW!!
just because it can be done doesn't mean it should be done.
it's not dissimilar to... "winning the battle, but losing the war."
Weren't there reports of the tunnel section leaking?
The difference between right and left-hand traffic is a non-starter for the project?
Both Macau and Hong Kong drive on the left
I was there in 2019 and yes this bridge was practically unused.
Don't forget the interest or opportunity cost of the 20 billion investment, a mere 5% annual cap rate means 1 billion each year to finance the bridge
Delusions of grandeur - that's the hallmark of China's current leader! This bridge is one of the best examples.The higher you fall, the harder it is.
near double cost over 10 years is not an example of those costs "spiraling out of control".
London, Millenium dome: initial budget 100 million GBP, final cost: ~ 900 million GBP, THAT'S an example of an 'out of control' cost blowout.
No colossal failure on the bridge construction and use. The colossal failure is for the video to to have proper comparison and analysis. A basic a toll highway in north America of equivalent length would cost as much if not more and the toll fees would be much higher. It would also have low traffic for a number of years until user and becomes customized to use. The left/right shifting would have to be done on regular land route as well so no disadvantage but the bridge saved many hours of commute.
It is a total success, what the heck are you talking about. Click bait again???
@@charlesmadre5568 The bridge is a ferry tale.
Do the math. The numbers do not lie. This bridge is a failure. Just because you can do or build something, doesn't mean you should. They aren't taking in nowhere near in tolls to cover the cost of upkeep on this thing. And wait until it gets hit by a worse Typhoon or cyclone. This bridge is a failure and should have never been built like a lot of Chinese mega projects.
When I visited then Portugese-ruled Macau in 1994, to my surprise the traffic drove on the left as in Hong Kong. When was the change-over and were there problems? I recall when Sweden switched on one day in 1967. My tour guide in Hong Kong said her soon-to-be former British colony planned to leave the left-hand traffic as is. Lawrence Stelter, 7/16/23
cheasapeak tunnel bridge been there done that
How do they solve left hand right hand driving between the cities?
good to hear, that not only Germany messes up such big projects - see Berlin airport or Stuttgart train station - and luckily many other countries screw up even more - so welcome to the club !
yea we in the UK are also guilty
crossrail cost 5billion at start final cost 15 billion and 3 years late to save 15mins from heathrow to canarey wharf
HS2 launched in a fanfare at cost of 5 billion now reduced in scope by a third but new cost of 18 billion to save 20 mins manchester to london but new station is 30 mins from manchester city center
1930's a free bridge was built over the river mersey
2000's a new bridge was proposed cost 200million was told to only use private contractors to build maintain (collect tolls) cost to taxpayers £1.5 billion, oh and the free bridge 200 meters upstream is new tolled
While fun to speculate the bridge should have included a railway connection, this ignores that the added costs would have been massive - like 50% or more.
Trains are heavy, so adding railway not simply compares to adding an extra, or two, road lanes - it takes much more.
A very thorough and unbiased assessment of the bridge. I would add one more reason for the bridge failure. If the Double-Y option which included Shenzhen in it, was adopted, there would be much much increased traffic between Zhuhai and Shenzhen as these two cities are on the mainland without border hinderance.. The traffic between these two Mainland cities are so high that a separate bridge linking them is now being built.
Thank you for your kind feedback! Fully agree on your comment about the Double-Y option. I also believe this would have been beneficial. It makes sense to connect the cities in the GBA area as much as possible but convenience for using those links should play a bigger role.
What good is it if only right side drive is legal in HK? This new bridge will only benefit car owners in HK. I guess most of the vehicles are 3+ year old Jap cars that have to be exported due to regulations and have the steering wheel on the right side as required in HK?
6:45 Macau has left-hand traffic (same as HK).
To paraphrase Henry Royce: "The quality will be remembered long after the price is forgotten”
was the rail link ever an option ?
The very obvious, IF they wish to move freight rail makes more sense. Even moving many passengers.
Equally obvious they have to get border procedures over before they leave which ever mainland. And the stupidity of spending this much money then having a ban on r/h drive vehicles,,, dumb dumb and dumber. And the insurance issues as well. That should have been sorted out with the industry well ahead of opening.
New York has a parallel failure in the new Tappan Zee. The opportunity to add a rail line, even a light rail line linking Nyack and the Northern tip of Manhattan was a wicked waste. At least their is a walkway
No need for rail train on tappan zee bridge. There is the Amtrak rail interconnecting NY counties and to other states. There is also the subway system for NY City borough's interconnection.
I didn’t know there was a new Tappan Zee - I remember driving over it May years ago when visiting NYC!
@lightbox617......At least THERE is a walkway.......learn English......illiterate idiot......
The future of transportation is with rail and not with individual cars. This should have been a primarily rail bridge and only secondarily for cars. China has developed an enormous high-speed rail network, so why did the planners fall asleep on this?
Probably because this project started in the 1980s and was planned in the 90s/2000s. The high speed rail network was only getting started then so planners were still thinking primarily about roads. Just I guess. It is a huge failure of long-term thinking, which China is usually relatively good at.
Since July 1, 2023 private cars were exempted from paying custom duties. This has led to increase in traffic with the recent Easter break having a record 19,000 cars traveling the bridge.
I have been on this bridge so many times that i have lost count .When my family and friends from the UK that comes to hong kong . They will say the trip to macau is amazing. Every gold bus is packed with people and is a great experience. Well done China . Good to see everyone is happy and the government is making money everyday ❤😅
'must have'
Why not using supersonic airframes instead?
Excellent analysis. I thought the bridge failed because of structural problems. Now I know it is mostly from bureaucratic and political issues. I hope all problems can be resolved soon.
and the right side driver vs the left side driver ! !
what a mess ! 🤮🤮
The bridge didn't failed.
Y T jealousy fails. 😂🤣
@@tiagogomes3807 Physically, not yet. Economically, since its inception.
This project is a big success because from 10billion US dollars upgraded to 18billion, 8 billion dollars inflow to wallet. Also a bridge of non-use, that means saving of maintenance cost, more still , if it falls, more money to be yield 👍👍👍
It seems like they will have to switch left-driving Hong-Kong to right-driving.
Then reduce bureaucracy for both private and business vehicles.
Minimise toll tarifs; to match perceived benefits to cost in the minds of users.
Could a rail line be an "add on"; possibly hung underneath.. assuming the strength is sufficient.?
They could convert 2 of the lanes to rail. One line in each direction. There is no need for 3 lanes of road in each direction.
It's not that easy. Rail bridges need to be stronger as the weight going over them tends to be way more concentrated. If the bridge wasn't planned for conversion in the first place, maybe light-rail vehicles could cross it, but certainly no freight trains.
6:50 Hong Kong and Macau are left-hand traffic, but the traffic rule including road signs on the bridge follows China's. Many Hong Kongers considered this bridge as one of the 'white elephant' projects. Which seems it is constructed concerning on political more than financial feasible. The majority section of the bridge is built by China's, private car requires special license to get on the bridge to enter the 3 places or to park at Park & Ride in Macau / Zhuhai side.
Anyone with a wit of common sense knows a project this size will attract graft, overruns, mismanagement, engineering snafus, etc.... so, they trick the public into accepting the project by underestimating the cost to build and once it is underway the costs escalate but, they are too far into it to stop construction... everyone just accepts the enormous cost overruns and move on.... it happens all the time... just look at California's high-speed rail system that still has barely gotten off the ground after over 15 years not a single mile of rail is finished and it started out as a $9B project and estimates now have ballooned up from $88-$122B to complete... we all know those figures will be more than doubled when it is finished... probably half that is graft, inflation, and inefficiency... and my bet, the project, though not nearly as challenging as the Hong Kong bridge, will have just as many if not more problems to contend with after it is completed.
Good answer!
uk here just have to say
crossrail 3x over budget and 4 years late
HS2 4x over budget (and counting) reduced in scope 30% projected to be 5years late
@@philiprice7875 Indeed, when Crossrail was first proposed it was stated that trains would only run as far as Maidenhead, which seemed stupid. But it kept the projected cost down to allow authorisation. In practice they had electrified beyond Maidenhead to Reading, the natural target, well before Crossrail was complete!
California is quite Socialist with its policies, par for the course. SNAFU as usual
Wait, What? CITY document "checks"? WTF. No wonder the bridge is in trouble from low use. The federal government needs to step in and simplify things - FAST.
Roads like houses always gets the go ahead over other methods
I was taken over the bridge to my quarantine hotel in Zhuhai , bad memory
Hong Kong still driving on the left is ludicrous.
So this is another brilliant example of human (Chinese) short thinking, however some few people must have become very rich. Well done and it looks kinda nice at night.
1. Look how busy Humen Bridge gets, if it connect to Shenzhen, the traffic between Shenzhen will Zhuhai will be multiple times more than HK and Macau residents. Now, China deplicated the bridge at Shenzhen-Zhongshan so the HKZM has even less potential. and 2. It doesn't help the China/HK relation get deterioate after the bridge is open, follow by covid.
The cost of this bridge is 120b Chinese yuan. That equils 13.1b pound。 Do you know how much Heathrow third runway will be cost? 17.6b pound.
that is the reported cost do you want to cover a bet that is will be overbudget (and late)
Well narrated.
the most significant issue was the immigration implementation.. you needed to have both immigration from hongkong & immigration upon reaching macao.. the ferry immigration was troublesome already.. but the immigration thru the bridge was worst, on both sides.. if this issue can be addressed, then more people will be encouraged using the bridge.. its cheaper & faster than the ferry route
The proposed shorter Zhongshan/Shenzhen bridge is going to be hugely successful. There will be some kind of 'border' control (it's an authoritarian country) but nothing like the Zhuhai Bridge. I've Hong Kong many times, but I've only been through Shenzhen on the train. (I remember when it was a small city and it was mostly farms all the way to Guangzhou.) I've also been in Zhongshan about 40km from Macau, but I've never been to Macau -- too much effort to see... casinos? The hundred kilometers in the other directions -- Tashan County? I've been all over. One would think that the PRC government as proof of its dominion over Macau and Hong Kong would've eliminated border controls. So who did the investors/owners/operators of the Zhuhai Bridge piss off in Beijing that none of these purely bureaucratic have been resolved? Left hand drive cars still banned in Hong Kong? The pragmatic issue is likely a concern that already congested Hong Kong could be overwhelmed by incoming traffic. (In most places I know of there're no laws against having an opposite side steering whee because it isn't a problem. Many US Postal Services delivery vehicles have right side steering wheels. )
Zhongshan/Shenzhen bridge will not have border control it will just have tolls
If the average vehicle crossing the bridge has 41 occupants - which could be the case given that most of the vehicles apparently are buses -, then those 411 dollars per vehicle come down to ten dollars per trip.
sounds like a cluster you know what
Watched a video in which the Chinese people said they wouldn't use the bridge because they thought it might be 'Tofu Dreg' and don't get them started on the tunnel.
I used this bridge last month. I would call it beautiful and useful. I would call California high speed rail a Collosal Faliure.
Cali. high speed rail isn't even FINISHED, bonehead.
Oh I am sure millions are using the bridge every day just because it is "beautiful".
Typical ccp 50 cent army post. What has California rail to do with the underused bridge in china?
People in US fly or drive rail is not needed to transport people.
@@huaiwei And of course millions of happy passengers are using the California High-speed railway everyday in their 30 year long dream.
Many projects of questionable benefit or dubious value begin to shine when compared with California high speed rail.
The bridge could be a tourist destination, but that would require stopping the red tape!
Freight usually pays the billsz and it is usualy less time-sensitive than passenger transpo. It seems that there are less expensive, less bureaucratically-challenging alternatives for freight.
New TappanZee Bridge in NY, USA is an over-built, too-expensive project, but there aren't alternatives, so it won't be allowed to fail
2023 est for Interstate 5 Columbia River bridge replacement is $6.3B & I don't think that includes the bells and whistles that would be stupid not to include... although, whatever is decided, it will undoubtedly simply be feeding into one of Portland Oregon's freeway crawl zones. What's goin' on with the Three Gorge's dam?... has it busted (again?) or not? Okay, back to the show... thanks for sharing, gracias
Yes, a number of start-up problems but, according to this video, they're mostly of the bureaucratic kind and nothing that cannot be ironed out.
As for cost, yes again, $18 billion is a lot of money, but for comparison, the Boston "Big Dig," a much less ambitious project, cost $14.6 billion, making the Hong Kong-Macau-Zhuhai Bridge a relative bargain.
Lastly, it was mentioned several times that the bridge didn't get as much traffic as predicted. This was something I noticed with other toll roads in China so it's hardly unique to the bridge. It seems that Chinese drivers are resistant to spending money on tolls in general, which is something that may or may not change with time.
As for me, I rather enjoyed the ferry rides between Zhuhai and Hong Kong and Shenzhen when I lived in Zhuhai, but might not if I had to do them on a regular basis.
I've used the ferries and the bridge many times. I would choose the ferry any day. There are 2 main departure points, one on HK Island and the other on Kowloon, ferries run at 15 minute intervals during the day and every 30 minutes or so throughout the night. Via the bridge most people take the bus, the freqeuncy is limited and space is far less than on the ferries, not that the buses are very full. The bus terminals are not easily reached, certainly on the HK side, it's about 1 hour on the bus from Kowloon bus station, and there is no easy connection by rail or MTR. China has a thing about bridges and tunnels, but this one was a bridge too far.
I am a hongkonger,and when I was on the plane about to take off,I saw the bridge and there was like only 10 cars,trucks and buses in the span of 5 minutes
busy day then? what was the traffic jam like?
THANK YOU for pronouncing "kilometers" correctly!
The Covid pandemic has left the bridge virtually closed in 2020-2022! Thus this project did not have a good start. Moreover Macau has very little to offer other than tourism/gambling and tourists are the primary target for this bridge. Really cannot visualize what major economic benefit can this bridge bring.
so basically 3 years of the 40 year deprecation of the bridge went to complete waste, leaving only 37 left and increasing the per-year cost by approx. another $100,000, $444 per vehicle as opposed to $411. In the long run China will impose higher tolls to make up this cost (because of course they will), thereby alienating even more drivers.
What congestion?
To make this a succes: 1 abolish all border controls (It's all in China after all), 2 Allow all cars left or right hand to drive in Hongkong and China ,3 make it free to use.
free to use what are you ? some sort of commie
I see a cost overrun of 80 % as rather low, unluckily.
From an outsiders perspective, it seems as if the only vehicles that can have use of the bridge *and* at both ends would be bicycles, perhaps also motorcycles depending on the standards applicable to them. 🚵
I can say - As a British cyclist who finds much more comfort riding the roads of Paris versus those of London - That bicycles (Unlike cars) appear capable of meeting both Chinese and Hong Kong standards *at the same time.* 🙃
An additional benefit is that bicycles function in exactly the same way whether driving is on the left or the right...As verified by the unfortunate fact my UK town has an area which so closely resembles a part of Hamburg I automatically ride on the *German* side whenever I'm passing through it! 😳
Macau also drives on the left!
Skyrocketing cost shouldn't be considered a failure as this is consistent with larger infrastructure projects around the world.
Agreed, if costs were the only problem. But the bridge has many other issues as well.
I wish we have those problem.
It was always going to be "The bridge to nowhere".
The the brain dead ,for sure .
" another fine mess you've got me in Stanley"......
These Chinese failures always warm my heart. Mega thanks!
Amazing china
All of these massive bridges being built in different countries is like the modern day cold War. Nothing but a pissing contest.
that's 3 significant over sites,, Boarder security, Wheels on the wrong side of the road and No, train,, they say things come in 3's
These issues should not come as a surprise
watching for support friend please stay connected thank you.