Kai Tak Tunnel, formerly known as the Airport Tunnel, is a tunnel in

New Kowloon New Kowloon is an area in Hong Kong, bounded in the south by Boundary Street, and in the north by the ranges of the Eagle's Nest, Beacon Hill, Lion Rock, Tate's Cairn and Kowloon Peak. It covers the present-day Kwun Tong District and Wong Tai S ...

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 ...

, which connects the

Kowloon Bay Kowloon Bay is a body of water within Victoria Harbour and an area within Kowloon, Hong Kong. The bay is located at the east of the Kowloon Peninsula and north of Hong Kong Island. It is the eastern portion of Victoria Harbour, between ...

and

Ma Tau Kok Ma Tau Kok Road Old apartments Ma Tau Kok () is a place north of To Kwa Wan, south-east of modern-day Ma Tau Chung and south-west of the former Kai Tak Airport (now Kai Tak Development) in Hong Kong. It was a cape in Kowloon Bay in Victoria Harbo ...

areas by going beneath the former Hong Kong International Airport (

Kai Tak Airport Kai Tak Airport was the international airport of Hong Kong from 1925 until 1998. Officially known as Hong Kong International Airport from 1954 to 6 July 1998, it is often referred to as Hong Kong International Airport, Kai Tak, or simply Ka ...

). It is part of Route 5. The tunnel provides a quick link between the two ends of the tunnel, as before the construction of the tunnel vehicles had to detour through

Kowloon City Kowloon City is an neighbourhood, area in New Kowloon, Hong Kong. It is part of Kowloon City District. Compared with the council area of Kowloon City District, the Kowloon City area is History As early as in the Qin dynasty (221 BCE ...

to reach the other end.Hong Kong Yearbook 1999, HKSAR. Kai Tak Tunnel is currently managed by Greater Lucky (H.K.) Company Limited.

History

Construction of the tunnel had started by 1975, but because of the difficulties in digging under the airport runway, it was not complete until 1982. The southern tube opened to two-way traffic at 3:00 pm on 29 June 1982. The second (northern) tube opened on 8 October that year. The Airport Tunnel was the first tunnel in Hong Kong to be toll-free, excluding short underpasses. With

's shutdown in 1998, the Airport Tunnel was no longer fulfilled to its name. The Hong Kong Government announced to rename to Kai Tak Tunnel on 2 March 2006 that the tunnel, effective from 4 May 2006, after several years of consultation with groups including the

Kowloon City District Council The Kowloon City District Council () is the district council of Hong Kong, district council for the Kowloon City District in Hong Kong. It is one of 18 such councils. The Kowloon City District Council currently consists of 25 members, of which th ...

. The name was changed to commemorate the former Kai Tak International Airport.Airport Tunnel renamed as Kai Tak Tunnel
- Hong Kong Government press release. Retrieved on May 29, 2008.

Features

The tunnel consists of a pair of tubes of about 7 metres diameter each, 1.26 km long. The southern tube carries west-bound traffic from Kowloon Bay to

. A point of interest is that the eastbound tunnel branches off onto

Sung Wong Toi Road Sung may refer to: *Sung, Cambodia, commune in Samlout District, Battambang Province *Singing (past participle of the verb "to sing") Chinese history *Song (state) (宋) (11th century BC – 286 BC), a state during the Spring and Autumn period, a ...

. It is the only major vehicular tunnel in Hong Kong built entirely by the

cut-and-cover A tunnel is an underground passageway, dug through surrounding soil, earth or rock, and enclosed except for the entrance and exit, commonly at each end. A pipeline is not a tunnel, though some recent tunnels have used immersed tube constr ...

technique. Many major express bus routes of

Kowloon Motor Bus The Kowloon Motor Bus Company (1933) Limited (KMB) is a bus company operating franchised services in Hong Kong. It is the largest bus company in Hong Kong by fleet size and number of bus routes. It is a subsidiary of Transport International. ...

and

New World First Bus New World First Bus Services Limited (NWFB) is the third-largest bus operator in Hong Kong. Established by NWS Holdings and FirstGroup in September 1998, it took over 88 China Motor Bus services in Hong Kong Island. Since 2020 it has been a s ...

between Kowloon and the eastern end of New Kowloon travel through the Kai Tak Tunnel. Most of them run between the

Kwun Tong District Kwun Tong is one of the 18 districts of Hong Kong. It is located in Kowloon, and is the easternmost and southernmost district in Kowloon. It had a population of 648,541 in 2016. The district has the second highest population in Hong Kong, af ...

Sai Kung District Sai Kung District is one of the 18 districts of Hong Kong, a special administrative region of China. The district comprises the southern half of the Sai Kung Peninsula, the Clear Water Bay Peninsula in the New Territories and a strip of lan ...

and

Tsim Sha Tsui Tsim Sha Tsui, often abbreviated as TST, is an list of areas of Hong Kong, urban area in southern Kowloon, Hong Kong. The area is administratively part of the Yau Tsim Mong District. Tsim Sha Tsui East is a piece of land reclaimed from the Hu ...

and

Hung Hom Hung Hom () is an area in the southeast of Kowloon Peninsula, Hong Kong. Including the area of Whampoa, Tai Wan, Hok Yuen, Lo Lung Hang and No. 12 Hill are administratively part of the Kowloon City District, with a portion west of Hung Ho ...

. They include 13X, 213X, 224X, 98D, 98P, 14X, 215X, 219X, 296D, 297, 796P. Westbound departures of routes 11X and 28 and peak hour cross harbour tunnel bus route 101X and Hong Kong High Speed Rail feeder bus route W2, also runs through Kai Tak Tunnel. In total, an estimated 60000 vehicles use the tunnel each day.Hong Kong Guide 2006, Survey and Mapping Office, HKSAR.

References

{{coord, 22, 19, 27.49, N, 114, 11, 37.66, E, region:HK, display=title Road tunnels in Hong Kong Route 5 (Hong Kong) Kowloon Bay Ma Tau Kok Tunnels completed in 1982 1982 establishments in Hong Kong