Hong Kong's Tseung Kwan O Cross Bay Bridge opened to traffic on December 11, becoming the first major bridge built exclusively by a mainland company in Hong Kong.

As an important cross-sea corridor at Junk Bay in the southeastern New Territories of Hong Kong, the Tseung Kwan O Cross Bay Bridge, the main project of the Cross Bay Link, was built by the China Road and Bridge Corp., which took over four years.

John Lee, chief executive of China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), said on December 10 at the commissioning ceremony of the Tseung Kwan O-Lam Tin Tunnel and the Cross Bay Link that the HKSAR government will stick to an infrastructure-led approach by rolling out more transport projects and improving existing networks and will release a blueprint by the end of next year.

The Cross Bay Link in Tseung Kwan O is about 1.8 kilometers long, of which one kilometer is a marine viaduct, and the steel bridge is an integral part of the marine viaduct.

According to the China Road and Bridge Corp., the bridge is the longest span and heaviest steel arch bridge in Hong Kong.

The steel bridge components were prefabricated in the mainland, and the about 200-meter-long bridge was delivered to Hong Kong from Nantong, eastern Jiangsu Province.

This is the first time that the "float-over method" has been used in bridge erection in China. The project team also considered the tidal conditions for the erection.

The bridge project adopted off-site fabrication and assembly, whole bridge delivery and on-site installation. Using high-strength S690 steel for the arches of the bridge also represented a breakthrough in construction.

The bridge is the first marine viaduct in Hong Kong with a carriageway, a footpath, a cycle track and viewing platforms at the same time.