The Shenzhong (Shenzhen-Zhongshan) Link passed its final acceptance testing on Sunday, marking completion of the seven-year construction of the cross-sea mega project.

The project still needs approval from industry authorities before the link can be officially opened to traffic, according to the Guangdong Communications Group.

The passage of final acceptance testing of the Shenzhong Link not only marks the recognition of its excellent and high-quality construction, but also signifies a leap in our technical ability to build world-class cross-sea cluster projects

Song Shenyou, director of the Shenzhong Link administration center and chief engineer of the project 

The 24-kilometer link, comprising one underwater tunnel, two bridges and two artificial islands, is expected to be opened to traffic later this month. It will cut the travel time between Shenzhen and Zhongshan from the current two hours to about 30 minutes, promoting economic development and people-to-people exchanges in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

“The passage of final acceptance testing of the Shenzhong Link not only marks the recognition of its excellent and high-quality construction, but also signifies a leap in our technical ability to build world-class cross-sea cluster projects,” Song Shenyou, director of the Shenzhong Link administration center and chief engineer of the project, said. Song added that the new quality productive forces that the project has created can be applied in the construction of other cross-sea links in the future.

“While boosting better integration of the eastern and western sides of the Pearl River Estuary, the link will also promote the flow of elements, thereby generating more new productivity,” said Song. “From this perspective, the project is also a catalyst for new quality productive forces.”

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Zhi Yufeng, director of the commission responsible for the acceptance testing and deputy general manager of the Guangdong Communications Group, said the project was large in scale and technically challenging to construct. A number of key innovations and technological breakthroughs had to be made in order to complete the project, he added.

The Shenzhong Link is another world-class cross-sea mega project in the Bay Area, along with the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge (HKZM Bridge), which officially came into service in October 2018.

Travelers made a total of 16.3 million cross-boundary trips via the Zhuhai port of the HKZM Bridge in 2023, while the number of cross-boundary journeys by vehicles traveling over the bridge hit 3.26 million in the same year, representing, respectively, increases of 1.29 times and 3.8 times the numbers in 2019, according to official statistics.

While the HKZM Bridge plays a significant role in strengthening the cross-boundary connectivity of people and goods between Guangdong and the two special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macao, the Shenzhong Link will bridge the western and eastern sides of the Pearl River Estuary, promoting balanced development of the region.

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Zhongshan’s economy is expected to get a boost from the new link as it will help accelerate the flow of capital and talent from Shenzhen; meanwhile, the new route will help Shenzhen ease its land shortage problem, providing more space for its development.

The launch of the mega project will also benefit people from Hong Kong. The growing number of Hong Kong residents who regularly travel to Shenzhen for dining, shopping and tourism on the weekends will now have the option to travel from Shenzhen to Zhongshan within 30 minutes.

Contact the writer at sally@chinadailyhk.com