Heung Yuen Wai Highway

Heung Yuen Wai Highway, also abbreviated as HYWH, (Chinese: 香園圍公路; Jyutping: hoeng1 jyun4 wai4 gung1 lou6) 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, an upcoming border checkpoint between Hong Kong and China now under construction.

Heung Yuen Wai Highway
Lin Ma Hang Road Interchange where Heung Yuen Wai Highway (on the viaduct) is connected to Lin Ma Hang Road
Route information
Maintained by the Highways Department
Length11 km (7 mi)
Existed2019–present
Major junctions
South end Route 9 Fanling Highway in Kau Lung Hang
 Sha Tau Kok Road
North endHeung Yuen Wai Control Point
Highway system

The highway comprises three parts — Lung Shan Tunnel, Cheung Shan Tunnel, and 5.5 kilometres (3.4 mi) of viaducts and at-grade roads. At 4.8 kilometres (3.0 mi), Lung Shan Tunnel is the longest land road tunnel in Hong Kong.[1] 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.[2]

The highway travels northeastward as a dual-tube tunnel under Bird's Hill (also known as Lung Shan, Chinese: 龍山) called Lung Shan Tunnel. The 4.8-kilometre (3.0 mi) tunnel is the longest land-based road tunnel in Hong Kong,[1] 0.85 kilometres (0.53 mi) 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).[3]

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 700-metre (0.43 mi) 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),[4] nor does it belong to any of the territory's numbered routes.

History
Southern portal of Cheung Shan Tunnel under construction (March 2017)

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.[5] 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,[6] to be connected to Hong Kong's existing highway network by way of a dual two-lane trunk Connecting Road.[7]

The contract to construct Lung Shan Tunnel was awarded to Dragages-Bouygues Joint Venture at HK$10.314 billion.[7][8] It was named Tunnelling Project of the Year in the 2019 Tunnelling Awards organized by New Civil Engineer.[9] 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.[7] 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.[10]

Interchanges and major intersections
Heung Yuen Wai Highway
District Location km Interchange name Destinations Notes
Tai Po Kau Lung Hang 0.0 Fanling Highway Interchange Route 9 south (Fanling Highway) – Tai Po, Kowloon Southern terminus
Route 9 north (Fanling Highway) – Fanling, Sheung Shui
North Sha Tau Kok 6.2 Sha Tau Kok Road Interchange Sha Tau Kok Road - Wo Hang – Sha Tau Kok
Ping Che 9.0 Ping Yeung Interchange Ping Yeung
Ta Kwu Ling 10.2 Lin Ma Hang Road Interchange Lin Ma Hang Road – Heung Yuen Wai, Lin Ma Hang Northern terminus until the opening of Heung Yuen Wai Control Point
Heung Yuen Wai Boundary Eventual northern terminus
1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi
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See also

References
  1. "Hong Kong's newest highway officially launches". The Standard. 26 May 2019. Retrieved 24 March 2020.
  2. 香園圍公路 - 粉嶺公路交匯處（繁/ENG） [Heung Yuen Wai Highway - Fanling Highway Interchange (TC/Eng)] (in Cantonese and English). 2019-05-20. Retrieved 2019-09-09.
  3. Construction Features, Heung Yuen Wai Highway website
  4. "Road Traffic Ordinance (Chapter 374): Designation of Expressways under Section 123". Transport Department. 24 December 2014. Retrieved 23 March 2020.
  5. "《深港興建蓮塘／香園圍口岸前期規劃研究》研究成果" (PDF). 深圳市規劃局、香港特別行政區政府規劃署. 2008-09-18. Retrieved 2019-05-31.
  6. "中港落實興建蓮塘口岸". Information Services Department. 2008-09-18. Archived from the original on 2008-10-21. Retrieved 2019-05-31.
  7. "Liantang/Heung Yuen Wai Boundary Control Point and associated works - site formation and infrastructure works". Civil Engineering and Development Department. Retrieved 2020-03-24.
  8. "Dragages Wins $10.3b Border Crossing Tunnel Job". Construction Post. 2014-01-08. Retrieved 2020-03-24.
  9. Horgan, Rob (2019-12-06). "French firms dethrone Spanish counterparts at Tunnelling Awards". New Civil Engineer. Retrieved 2020-03-24.
  10. "New road linking Hong Kong with mainland China to open this month as work on HK$33.7 billion border crossing enters final stages". South China Morning Post. 17 May 2019. Retrieved 24 March 2020.
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