The Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge, the longest fixed link on earth, was open to traffic this Wednesday, marking SCUT as one of the major institutions that contributed to its birth.
At the entire length of 55 kilometers, the bridge-tunnel system is a combination of bridges, an undersea tunnel, and artificial islands. It is one of the world’s most demanding engineering spectacle that uses many state of the art techniques.
In 2014, the SCUT Engineering Construction Supervision Co, Ltd. (SCUT-ECS) won the tender of the project at the bridge-tunnel’s Zhuhai Port, the only highway port in the Pearl River Delta that connects Hong Kong, Zhuhai, and Macao with a capacity of transporting both passengers and cargo.
Professor Zhang Yuan, a prestigious scholar and engineer of SCUT, was then appointed Chief Engineer of the program, which included building a section for travel inspection, an office zone, a traffic control center, as well as corridor links.
The program was completed with efficiency and quality, and it now presents a multi-purpose hub covering 107 hectares that combines transportation, management, services, rescue, and tourism.
Many other faculty members of SCUT also contributed to different parts of the whole bridge-tunnel. These included Associate Professor Zhao Chengbi at the Department of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering, Associate Professor Yu Jiangmiao at the Department of Road Engineering, and Professor Wang Ronghui at the Department of Civil Engineering.
It is worth to mention that SCUT has been cooperating with the engineering project since its beginning to train part-time students. Scholars of SCUT spent evenings, weekends, and public holidays to teach lessons, and over the past seven years, 56 students of master’s degree in engineering have completed courses provided by the program.
