Construction of the fourth bridge between the Macao peninsula and Taipa will be finished during the third quarter of this year, according to the Secretary for Transport and Public Works, Raimundo do Rosário.
The bridge was originally meant to be up and running by January 2024. In December, the Public Works Bureau (known by its Portuguese initials DSOP) announced that date had been shifted to the second quarter of this year – noting that 85 percent of it had already been finished.
This latest update came on Saturday, when Rosário acknowledged to TDM that while construction was running “a bit late,” such delays were “acceptable for such a big project.”
[See more: Five names have been shortlisted for Macao’s new bridge]
Rosário also noted that the bridge’s second section would be finished within the next few days. When complete, the 3.1-kilometre, eight-lane bridge will connect two land reclamation areas – Zone A and E1, neither of which is currently inhabited.
The fourth bridge’s construction – which kicked off in March 2020 – has been disrupting ferry services, as the structure traverses a navigation channel in front of the Outer Harbour Ferry Terminal.
A competition to name the new bridge is meanwhile underway. Five names, proposed by the public, are being considered by an official selection committee. They are: Macau Bridge, New Urban Bridge, Kiang Hoi (meaning “mirror sea”) Bridge, Silver Jubilee Bridge, and Hou Kong (meaning “oyster river”) Bridge.
