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Underutilized HZMB finds it difficult bridging the gap

By Gu Mengyan | chinadaily.com.cn | Updated: 2020-10-26 15:40

This undated photo shows the Zhuhai section of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge in Guangdong province. [ZHANG YOUQIONG / FOR CHINA DAILY]

The world's longest sea crossing in southern China is set to celebrate its second anniversary on Saturday with less than one tenth of the expected traffic flow.

The 55-kilometer Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge (HZMB), spanning the jurisdictions of Guangdong province and Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions, opened on Oct 24, 2018. While an average daily vehicular flow of 3,494 and 4,167 was registered in 2018 and 2019, respectively, that number plunged to fewer than 400 vehicles between April and July this year as per data from the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge Authority, the bridge's operator.

In 2008, when the Hong Kong government released a feasibility report for the bridge, it was estimated that on the second year of its operation, at least 9,200 vehicles would be using the bridge on a daily basis.

Costly upkeep

The COVID-19 pandemic is not singularly responsible for the striking underutilization of HZMB. At the end of 2019, when the coronavirus had not yet reared its head, the bridge had already recorded a lower-than-expected average daily traffic of around 4,000 vehicles, according to Hong Kong’s Transport Department. 

About HK$2.5 billion (US$322 million) was to be spent yearly to keep the bridge operational, according to a 2017 report from the Guangdong government. However, toll fees, the bridge's major source of revenue, plummeted in 2020, owing not just to the significantly depleted traffic but also a toll waiver that was in place from late January to early May.

Toll charges on vehicles on the bridge range from 60 yuan (US$9) for goods vehicles, to 300 yuan for shuttle buses. Private cars cost 150 yuan per trip.

Authorities have not disclosed whether or how much the Hong Kong government pays for the bridge's operational costs. Hong Kong shared about 43 percent of the main bridge's construction cost.

Becky Loo Pui-ying, director of the University of Hong Kong's Institute of Transport Studies, said the bridge's low traffic did not result from a lack of demand. In a response emailed to China Daily, she attributed the situation to stringent controls imposed by the three governments.

"In any case, we won't expect a major piece of regional infrastructure, such as container ports, railway extensions and airports, to operate at their full capacity in the first two years," she said.

Pointing out the different customs regimes and varying road transport network capacities of the three jurisdictions, Loo called for tripartite negotiations that could help "ensure a sensible and gradual increase" in vehicular traffic along the bridge.

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