Hong Kong Zhuhai Macao Bridge-Tunnel project immersed tunnel and artificial islands – From an Owners' perspective.

The Hong Kong Zhuhai Macao Bridge (HZMB) link is currently one of the largest fixed links ever realised. The link comprises various bridges, causeways, artificial islands and tunnels and has a total length of more than 55 km with an investment of about RMB 120billion (approx. €15 billion). The Link accommodates a dual carriageway with three traffic lanes in each direction. The construction of the Link started at the end of 2010 and was opened to traffic in October 2018. The HZMB Link is internationally regarded as one of the most challenging sea crossing projects in China and a demonstration of China's comprehensive breakthrough in technology, scientific research and other related fields. The offshore part of the HZMB Link, crossing the Pearl River Estuary involves one of the world's longest and deepest immersed tunnels. The tunnel was designed and constructed to meet state-of-the-art requirements and challenging structural, geotechnical and marine/offshore conditions. The HZMB tunnel won the ITA Tunnelling Award Major Project of the Year 2018. This paper presents the project from the Client perspective. The paper will give a general introduction of the project, will provide information regarding the challenging environment in which the tunnel had to be realized and the high demanding design criteria that were applicable. Furthermore, the evaluation of the various technical options will be discussed, ultimately leading to the selection of the immersed tunnel option. The paper will also look into the background of selecting the Design & Build contract approach for this project and the experiences that were built up using this type of contract, new to China on this scale. Finally, the paper introduces how operation and maintenance of the tunnel is planned and executed so as to guarantee the 120-year design lifetime. In Ref. (The Islands and Tunnel Project of HZM Link et al., 2022) more details of the project are discussed from the D&B contractors' perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]