The government started to collect opinions and suggestions from the public on Tuesday on a draft report of the ongoing environmental assessment of an undersea tunnel between the peninsula and Taipa, the Lands, Public Works and Transport Bureau (DSSOPT) said in a statement on Tuesday.
According to a previous DSSOPT statement, the local government has commissioned CCCC Highway Consultants Company Limited – a subsidiary fully owned by China Communications Construction Company Limited (CCCC) – to carry out the initial design of the Macau-Taipa tunnel. CCCC Highway Consultants Company Limited has commissioned Shanghai Investigation, Design & Research Institute Company Limited to carry out the environmental assessment of the project.
According to Tuesday’s statement, the Shanghai-based company has completed the environmental assessment draft report.
Residents can submit their opinions and suggestions until November 5 by letter, phone, fax or email to the bureau or the entity tasked with carrying out the environmental assessment, the statement said.
According to the statement, the public opinion collection process for the project’s environmental assessment is divided into three phases. In the first phase carried out between June 10 and 21, the bureau released basic information on the Macau-Taipa tunnel project, for which five opinions were received.
The second phase, which started on Tuesday, aims to collect opinions on the recently-completed environmental assessment draft report. The third phase is for the entity tasked with carrying out the environmental assessment to draft the final version of the environmental assessment report after studying the collected opinions.
According to the statement, Shanghai Investigation, Design & Research Institute Company Limited completed the environmental assessment draft report earlier this month after studying the five opinions collected during the first phase in June.
According to the statement, the environmental assessment draft report has concluded that the undersea tunnel project will have a “certain” impact on its surrounding environment, but in general, the impact will only be “temporary and reversible”.
According to the statement, the environmental assessment draft report says that the implementation of appropriate environmental protection measures can reduce the environmental impact of the project and return the area’s “ecological” environment to its original state after the completion of the project. The draft report says that the project “will not have a significant impact on the area’s ecological system”, asserting that the project is feasible in terms of the environmental impact.
Tunnel next to ‘Old Bridge’
The tunnel to be built next to the Governor Nobre de Carvalho Bridge (commonly known as the “Old Bridge”) – and it will be the fifth link between the peninsula and Taipa.
The government launched in December last year a bidding process for the design and construction of the fourth Macau-Taipa link. According to the Macau Post Daily, the government unsealed bids submitted by seven companies in August this year, when it said that it expected to announce the winning bid in the fourth quarter of this year. The fourth link – a bridge – will connect the land reclamation area known as Zone A and the Zone E1 reclamation area.
According to Tuesday’s statement, the fifth link will connect the Zone B reclamation area – the one outside Nape – and the future Zone D area to be reclaimed off the northern coast of Taipa. The Zone D project is yet to get off the ground.
According to the statement, the 2,400-metre-long tunnel will have six vehicular lanes – three in each direction, with a speed limit of 60 kilometres per hour.
