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Tsing Ma Bridge (青馬大橋) of Hong Kong is the world's fifth longest suspension bridge, and the longest two-deck suspension bridge carrying both road and rail traffic. It has a main span of 1,377 metres (4,518 ft) and a height of 206 metres, c.a. 300 ft longer than the famous Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. The 40m-wide bridge deck has two carriageways on the upper level, each of three lanes, for road traffic, and the lower level contains two rail tracks and two protected emergency lanes for road traffic. There are also two sheltered carriageways on the lower deck for maintenance access and as backup for traffic when particularly severe typhoons strike in Hong Kong. Though the road traffic of the bridge had to be closed in that case, trains could still get through in either direction.The Tsing Ma Bridge is one of the three long span bridges linking the New Territories and Chek Lap Kok, where the Hong Kong International Airport is located. The other two bridges are the Kap Shui Mun Bridge and the Ting Kau Bridge. The latter connects Tsing Yi and Ma Wan Island.
Construction work of the bridge began in May 1992 and ended in May 19971997 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar), and was designated the International Year of the Reef''. Events January January 3 NBC's Today Show Bryant Gumbel signs off for the last time January 8 Mister Rogers receives a star on t. It costed HK$7.2 billion. The Lantau LinkThe Lantau Link formerly known as the Lantau Fixed Crossing, is a series of infrastructures linking Hong Kong International Airport to the urban areas. The Lantau Link was officially opened on April 27, 1997, and it opened to traffic on May 22, 1997., of which the bridge is an integral part, was opened on April 27April 27 is the 117th day of the year (118th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 248 days remaining. Events 1124 David becomes King of Scotland. 1296 Battle of Dunbar: The Scots are defeated by Edward I of England. 1509 Pope Julius II places th, 1997. The ceremony was inaugurated by the former British Prime Minister Margaret ThatcherMargaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher LG, OM, PC, FRS (born October 13, 1925) is a British politician and the first woman Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, a position she held from 1979 to 1990. She is a member of the Conservative Party and still.
Surveillance cameras were installed over the bridge to record traffic conditions. The video is available at the government website http://traffic.td.gov.hk/snapshots/big5/li/frame_020104.asp . It is updated every two seconds.
The Tsing Ma Bridge has been an important gateway to Lantau. It will become part of the planned Route 8 expresswayRoute 8 Hong Kong is a dual 3-lane highway under construction which will link Lantau Island, Tsing Yi, West Kowloon and the Northeast New Territories of Hong Kong. It is a combination of many sections. The section from Lantau to Tsing Yi is made up of the, which will connect the Lantau LinkThe Lantau Link formerly known as the Lantau Fixed Crossing, is a series of infrastructures linking Hong Kong International Airport to the urban areas. The Lantau Link was officially opened on April 27, 1997, and it opened to traffic on May 22, 1997., the West Kowloon expressway, Cheung Sha Wan and Shatin.
1 Design
The bridge is a joint venture between American and Japanese Construction companies. Trafalgar House Construction (Asia) Limited, Costain Civil Engineering Limited of Britain, and Mitsui and Co. Limited of Japan were the major contractors. Mott MacDonald Hong Kong Limited was further contracted to design and engineer the bridge.
Since it is the main component of the Lantau Link and the only vehicular exit and entrance to Hong Kong International Airport, the closure of road traffic and trains will cause visitors great inconvenience. Therefore, the bridge is designed to stand windspeeds at a maximum of 290 kph. The bridge has high navigational clearance to Hong Kong Harbour. For safety reason, it has to be closed when strong typhoon comes. For instance, at the time Typhoon Victor, then classfied as signal no. 8 typhoon, hit Hong Kong in August 1997. That was the first and only time the bridge has been closed. In some other cases, if there is bad weather, but not as worse as the signal no.8 typhoon, the upper deck of the bridge will be closed as well. For instance, in September, 1999, owing to inclement weather, the upper deck of the bridge was closed and motorists were advised to use the lower deck which remained open to traffic.
