The Macau Bridge will be open to traffic in the third quarter of this year, according to the Public Works Bureau (known by its Portuguese initials DSOP).
The final stages of work were expected to be wrapped up this month. Once finished, the DSOP said the 3.1 kilometre, eight-lane bridge’s temporary support structures would be “dismantled immediately.”
The bureau also noted that the bridge’s asphalt had been successfully laid by a construction team working “day and night.”
[See more: Officials defend the name ‘Macau Bridge’]
Despite challenges brought about by April and June’s unusually wet weather, the team managed to finish asphalting 117,000 square metres of the bridge’s surface in just 102 days – three days faster than planned.
When it’s up and running, the bridge will improve traffic flows between the peninsula and Taipa. It connects the yet-to-be-named reclamation areas known as Zone A and E1.
It took four years and around 5.46 billion patacas (US$680 million) to build the Macau Bridge. A panel of judges settled on its name in March, from a shortlist of options suggested by residents.
