The Eastern Harbour Crossing, abbreviated as "EHC" (), is a combined road-rail tunnel that crosses beneath

Victoria Harbour Victoria Harbour is a natural landform harbour in Hong Kong separating Hong Kong Island in the south from the Kowloon Peninsula to the north. The harbour's deep, sheltered waters and strategic location on South China Sea were instrumental i ...

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

. Opened on 21 September 1989, it connects

Quarry Bay Quarry Bay is an area beneath Mount Parker in the Eastern District of Hong Kong Island, in Hong Kong. The western portion of the area was also formerly known as Lai Chi (). Traditionally an industrial and residential area, the number of commer ...

Hong Kong Island Hong Kong Island is an Islands and peninsulas of Hong Kong, island in the southern part of Hong Kong. Known colloquially and on road signs simply as Hong Kong, the island has a population of 1,289,500 and its population density is 16,390/km ...

and

Cha Kwo Ling Cha Kwo Ling () is a hill in the eastern New Kowloon area of Hong Kong, and the area around it. It is adjacent to Victoria Harbour and located to the west of Yau Tong and southwest of Lam Tin. Administratively, it belongs to the Kwun Tong ...

Kowloon East Kowloon East is the eastern part of Kowloon, covering the Wong Tai Sin District, Wong Tai Sin and Kwun Tong District, with Kowloon City District occasionally included. History The boundary of Kowloon East is not strictly defined and hence varies ...

History

The

Hong Kong Government The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, commonly known as the Hong Kong Government or HKSAR Government, refers to the Executive (government), executive authorities of Hong Kong Special administrative regions of China, ...

negotiated with several consortia to adopt the Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) model in planning new tunnels in different parts of the territory. In 1986, the government gave New Hong Kong Tunnel the right to run the Tunnel on a 30-year franchisee with lease expiring in August 2016. The tunnel features two components, a road part and a rail part: * The road part of the tunnel is branded by the operator as Eastern Harbour Tunnel, although the government refers to the tunnel itself as Eastern Harbour Crossing. The tunnel is governed by the ''Eastern Harbour Crossing Ordinance''. The road part links the

Island Eastern Corridor The Island Eastern Corridor (IEC) is an expressway built along the northeastern shore of Hong Kong Island in Hong Kong. It starts from Causeway Bay in the west and ends in Chai Wan in the east. It is mostly part of Route 4. The section betwe ...

in Hong Kong Island, Lei Yue Mun Road, Tseung Kwan O Tunnel, Tseung Kwan O——Lam Tin Tunnel and the

Kwun Tong Bypass The Kwun Tong Bypass (also spelt Kwun Tong By-pass) is an elevated expressway between Lam Tin and Kowloon Bay in Kwun Tong District, Kowloon East, Hong Kong, with three lanes in each direction and a posted speed limit of . It is part of Route ...

in Kowloon East. * The rail part, lying to the southeast of the road part, runs between

and

Yau Tong Yau Tong () is an area of Hong Kong, located in the southeastern end of Kowloon, between Lei Yue Mun and Lam Tin, at the east shore of Victoria Harbour, west of Tseung Kwan O. Administratively, it is part of Kwun Tong District, the most densely ...

stations of the MTR

Tseung Kwan O line The Tseung Kwan O line is one of the eleven lines of the MTR system in Hong Kong, indicated by the colour purple. It is currently long, taking 15 minutes to travel throughout the entire line. The line runs from North Point on the Hong Kong I ...

. The Chinese investment group

CITIC Pacific CITIC Limited () is a conglomerate headquartered in Hong Kong. Its shares are listed on the Main Board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, and it is a constituent of the Hang Seng Index. 58% of its issued shares are owned by the Chinese state-own ...

is interested in both parts, controlling the road part (71% stake) and has a 50% stake in the rail part. CITIC also controls 50% of the

Western Harbour Tunnel Company The Western Harbour Tunnel Company Limited (WHTCL) 香港西區隧道有限公司 is a jointly owned entity engaged principally in the construction, maintenance and operation of the Western Harbour Crossing (WHC) in Hong Kong. Founded in 1992, W ...

. The Kowloon tunnel portal is located next to a public housing estate,

Yau Lai Estate The following is an overview of public housing estates in Yau Tong, Kwun Tong, Kowloon, Hong Kong, including Home Ownership Scheme (HOS), Private Sector Participation Scheme (PSPS), and Tenants Purchase Scheme (TPS) estates. History Ove ...

Tunnel tolls

Tolls are collected manually or

electronically The field of electronics is a branch of physics and electrical engineering that deals with the emission, behaviour and effects of electrons using Electronic component, electronic devices. Electronics uses Passivity (engineering), active devices ...

in both directions at the toll plaza on the

side.

Notes

Interchanges

Traffic

, there are 46 bus routes passing through the tunnel.

Controversies

In June 2005, CITIC decided to raise the toll for using Eastern Harbour Crossing from HK$15 to HK$25 for private vehicles and up to 67% for other classes of vehicles, under the fare adjustment mechanism derived from the build-operate-transfer (BOT) model. This increase aroused criticisms that the model was detrimental to the public interest, with the increase shifting more traffic to the already congested

Cross-Harbour Tunnel The Cross-Harbour Tunnel (abbreviated ''CHT'' or ''XHT'') is the first tunnel in Hong Kong built underwater. It consists of two steel road tunnels each with two lanes constructed using the single shell immersed tube method. It is the earl ...

References

External links

Official site
{{Victoria Harbour Toll tunnels in Hong Kong Railway tunnels in Hong Kong Quarry Bay Cha Kwo Ling Yau Tong Victoria Harbour CITIC Group 1989 establishments in Hong Kong Route 2 (Hong Kong) Road tunnels in Hong Kong Undersea tunnels in Asia Immersed tube tunnels in Hong Kong Tunnels completed in 1989