Heung Yuen Wai Highway

Heung Yuen Wai Highway, also abbreviated as HYWH, () is a controlled-access highway in North District, New Territories, Hong Kong. It diverges from Fanling Highway of Route 9 at Kau Lung Hang, crosses Sha Tau Kok Road and connects to Heung Yuen Wai Control Point, a border checkpoint between Hong Kong and China which opened for freight traffic on 26 August 2020.

The highway comprises three parts — Lung Shan Tunnel, Cheung Shan Tunnel, and of viaducts and at-grade roads. At , Lung Shan Tunnel is the longest land road tunnel in Hong Kong. It boasts two lanes in each direction, with a posted speed limit of 80 kilometres per hour.

Route description

The southern terminus of Heung Yuen Wai Highway, known as Fanling Highway Interchange, is where four viaducts connect the highway to Fanling Highway. Built using the balanced cantilever method, the viaducts were assembled from 1,300 pieces of precast concrete segments.

The highway travels northeastward as a dual-tube tunnel under Bird's Hill (also known as Lung Shan, ) called Lung Shan Tunnel. The tunnel is the longest land-based road tunnel in Hong Kong, longer than the previous record holder Tate's Cairn Tunnel. Construction of the section from Fanling Highway Interchange to Lau Shui Heung involved the drill-and-blast method, whereas the segment from Lau Shui Heung to Sha Tau Kok Road Interchange was constructed with a tunnel boring machine (TBM).

Upon leaving Lung Shan Tunnel, the highway will arrive at the Sha Tau Kok Road Interchange to the west of Loi Tung village, where it crosses Sha Tau Kok Road. It then travels northwestward in the form of a dual-tube tunnel called Cheung Shan Tunnel, named after the hill it passes under. Leaving the tunnel at Wo Keng Shan Road, the highway continues northwestward to Ping Yeung and thence to its intersection with Lin Ma Hang Road, where the highway currently ends. When the Heung Yuen Wai Control Point opens in the future, the remaining section into the checkpoint would open.

Despite being a controlled-accessed highway with grade-separated interchanges, Heung Yuen Wai Highway has not been designated as an expressway under the ''Road Traffic Ordinance'' (Cap. 374, Laws of Hong Kong), nor does it belong to any of the territory's numbered routes.

History

The construction of Heung Yuen Wai Highway stemmed from the signing of ''Memorandum on Closer Co-operation between Hong Kong and Shenzhen'' in 2006, which calls for an investigation into the feasibility of building a new link between Hong Kong and China known as the Shenzhen Eastern Corridor. In September 2008 a decision was made jointly by the Hong Kong and Shenzhen governments to undertake the construction of the Liantang/Heung Yuen Wai Boundary Control Point, to be connected to Hong Kong's existing highway network by way of a dual two-lane trunk Connecting Road.

The contract to construct Lung Shan Tunnel was awarded to Dragages-Bouygues Joint Venture at HK$10.314 billion. It was named Tunnelling Project of the Year in the 2019 Tunnelling Awards organized by ''New Civil Engineer''. Meanwhile, the construction contracts for the Fanling Highway Interchange and the section between Sha Tau Kok Road and Lin Ma Hang Road were awarded to Chun Wo Construction and Engineering Company Limited and CRBC-CEC-KADEN Joint Venture respectively, at costs of HK$2.545 billion and HK$6.518 billion. Also included in the Chun Wo contract was the widening of Fanling Highway.

The highway was opened to traffic at 8 AM on 26 May 2019.

Interchanges

See also

*Route 9 (Hong Kong)

References

External links

Heung Yuen Wai Highway
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Expressways in Hong Kong
Tai Po District
North District, Hong Kong
Sha Tau Kok
Viaducts in Hong Kong
Bypasses