Design and construction of the West Kowloon Expressway, Kwai Chung and Tsing Yi section of Route 3 and the North Lantau Expressway

Abstract

Construction of Hong Kong's new airport at Chek Lap Kok has necessitated the design and construction of a major new strategic highway some 34 km long between Hong Kong Island and the airport island on the north west of Lantau Island. Constructed between 1992 and 1997 to a minimum of dual three-lane standards with hard shoulders on each carriageway, the route was opened to traffic in May 1997 just prior to the change of sovereignty from Britain to China. The paper describes the rationale for the design of three of the projects which make up the 34 km route, their major elements and the problems experienced during the construction stage.