The Central–Wan Chai Bypass is a trunk road running between

Sheung Wan Sheung Wan (Chinese: 上環) is an List of places in Hong Kong, area in Hong Kong, located in the north-west of Hong Kong Island, between Central, Hong Kong, Central and Sai Ying Pun. Administratively, it is part of the Central and Weste ...

and

Fortress Hill Fortress Hill or Pau Toi Shan () is a hill and an neighbourhood, area on the north shore of Hong Kong Island, Hong Kong. Fortress Hill includes the western part of North Point lying west of Oil Street, and the eastern part of Causeway Bay. ...

Hong Kong Island Hong Kong Island () is an island in the southern part of Hong Kong. The island, known originally and on road signs simply as "Hong Kong", had a population of 1,289,500 and a population density of , . It is the second largest island in Hong Kon ...

. The original design consists of a 2.3 km dual three-lane tunnel running under new reclamation areas provided by the

Central and Wan Chai Reclamation Central and Wan Chai Reclamation is a project launched by the government of Hong Kong since the 1990s to reclaim land for different purposes. This includes transportation improvements such as the Hong Kong MTR station, Airport Express Railway ...

project,Central–Wan Chai Bypass and Island Eastern Corridor Link
and also connections to

Connaught Road West Connaught Road ( Chinese: 干諾道) is a major thoroughfare on the north shore of Hong Kong Island, Hong Kong. It links Shing Sai Road in Kennedy Town to the west and Harcourt Road in Admiralty to the east. Location The road consists ...

flyover and

Island Eastern Corridor The Island Eastern Corridor (IEC) is an expressway built along the northeastern shore of Hong Kong Island in Hong Kong. It starts from Causeway Bay in the west and ends in Chai Wan in the east. It is mostly part of Route 4. The section be ...

. It substitutes Connaught Road Central,

Harcourt Road Harcourt Road (Traditional Chinese characters, Chinese: 夏慤道) is a major highway in Admiralty, Hong Kong, Admiralty, Hong Kong, connecting Central, Hong Kong, Central and Wan Chai. It starts at Murray Road and ends at Arsenal Street. The ...

, Gloucester Road and Victoria Park Road to be part of Route 4. The bypass opened to traffic on 20 January 2019.

History

The project, originally estimated to cost HK$28 billion, was approved by the

Legislative Council A legislative council is the legislature, or one of the legislative chambers, of a nation, colony, or subnational division such as a province or state. It was commonly used to label unicameral or upper house legislative bodies in the Brit ...

finance committee in 2009, following a "decade of objections and legal challenges" from environmentalists and citizens concerned by further reclamation of

Victoria Harbour Victoria Harbour is a natural landform harbor, harbour in Hong Kong separating Hong Kong Island in the south from the Kowloon Peninsula to the north. It acts as both a major trading hub and tourist attraction of Hong Kong in general. Lying in ...

. An Environmental Permit was issued under the Environmental Impact Assessment Ordinance and construction began the same year. Lawmakers were "shocked" in 2013 by

cost overrun A cost overrun, also known as a cost increase or budget overrun, involves unexpected incurred costs. When these costs are in excess of budgeted amounts due to a value engineering underestimation of the actual cost during budgeting, they are known ...

s. The

Transport and Housing Bureau The Transport and Housing Bureau (THB) was a policy bureau of the Government of Hong Kong between 2007 and 2022, responsible for a range of policies such as the internal and external transportation, including air transport, land transport, ...

requested HK$8 billion in extra funding, bringing the total bill to HK$36 billion. Gary Fan, a member of LegCo's transport panel, asked: "Did the government deliberately underestimate the cost in order to get Legco to pass it?" The government bureau blamed unforeseen geotechnical difficulties as well as fluctuating labour and materials costs for the 28 per cent budget increase. On 15 September 2015, the Director of Highways announced that the Central–Wan Chai Bypass would not open in 2017 as previously anticipated. He blamed a large metal object (probably a sunken ship) that was found on the seabed at the reclamation site in Wan Chai. As a result of the discovery, reclamation works were suspended for some time. The first phase of the project opened on 20 January 2019 with the entire project becoming operational on 24 February that year.

Alignment

The bypass starts from Rumsey Street Flyover at

. It enters a tunnel outside the International Finance Centre in Central, then heads east past the

Tamar site Tamar ( ; zh, 添馬) is the administrative centre of Hong Kong located in Admiralty. The headquarters of Hong Kong's Legislative Council and Central Government are located in Tamar. Adjacent to the island's financial heart at the Central ...

in Admiralty with an interchange at

Wan Chai Wan Chai (Traditional Chinese characters, Chinese: 灣仔) is located in the western part of Wan Chai District on the northern shore of Hong Kong Island, Hong Kong. It is bounded by Canal Road, Hong Kong, Canal Road to the east, Arsenal St ...

. It continues to head east under the proposed reclamation areas of Wan Chai, Causeway Bay and Tin Hau. The original design to have the bypass via Causeway Bay Typhoon Shelter leave the tunnel and connect with

was amended so that the bypass would now emerge from the tunnel between the IEC carriageways, merging with them near Oil Street,

Tunnel ventilation

Ventilation Ventilation may refer to: * Ventilation (physiology), the movement of air between the environment and the lungs via inhalation and exhalation ** Mechanical ventilation, in medicine, using artificial methods to assist breathing *** Respirator, a ma ...

is an indispensable part for the operation of the tunnel as it will supply fresh air to maintain good air-quality environment to the commuters inside the tunnel while discharge vitiated air in a controlled manner at pre-determined suitable locations of exhaust. The tunnel ventilation system is also required to remove smoke in case of tunnel fire incidents. It is proposed to have three ventilation buildings sited near the western end, mid-length and eastern end of the Bypass to achieve the three objectives of supplying fresh air, extracting vitiated air and removing smoke during fire. To achieve an energy efficient ventilation system by shortening the air extraction path, the location of proposed East Ventilation Building (EVB) needs to be as close to the tunnel portal as possible.Central - Wan Chai Bypass Connecting Island Eastern Corridor Enhancement Scheme for East Ventilation Building Public Consultation Leaflet

Gallery

File:Central and Wan Chai Reclamation Overview 201007.jpg, Construction site in 2010, looking west from Wan Chai. File:Central-Wan Chai Bypass (1).JPG, Construction site in 2011, looking east from the footbridge outside IFC. File:Central–Wan Chai Bypass construction Admiralty section.JPG, Admiralty section construction site. File:Central–Wan Chai Bypass construction Central section.JPG, Central section construction site. File:Central–Wan Chai Bypass construction Causeway Bay section.JPG, Causeway Bay section construction site. File:Semi-submersible ship used to install large large precast unit for Central–Wan Chai Bypass construction.JPG, Semi-submersible ship used to install large precast unit. File:Heavy crane ship use by Central–Wan Chai Bypass construction.JPG, Heavy crane ship use in the construction. File:Central-Wan Chai Bypass Construction.jpg, Construction works, as seen from Fleming Road in 2017.

References

External links

Highways Department - Major Projects - Central-Wan Chai Bypass and Island Eastern Corridor LinkCentral-Wan Chai Bypass Project WebsiteTwo years time lapse record of Wan Chai section construction work (YouTube video)Semi-submersible ship installing large precast unit (YouTube video)Central – Wan Chai Bypass and Island Eastern Corridor Link construction sites (YouTube video)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Central-Wan Chai Bypass Central, Hong Kong Wan Chai North Admiralty, Hong Kong Causeway Bay Route 4 (Hong Kong) Bypasses Undersea tunnels in Asia Tunnels in Hong Kong 2019 establishments in Hong Kong