The Highways Department has short-listed 16 teams to design the world's longest cable-stayed bridge, which will link Stonecutters and Tsing Yi islands. However, the department has not ruled out a suspension bridge, and the teams are free to produce those designs. 'We have invited proposals from the teams, and if each submits two proposals, we would be looking at 32 proposals,' Highways Department major works project manager Robert Lloyd said. The department would pick four to six proposals and allocate HK$1 million per design for the team to develop it. The results will be announced by September. The winner will get HK$1 million, first runner-up HK$300,000 and second runner-up HK$200,000. Winners will be judged by independent committees on aesthetics and technical feasibility. The bridge would link the islands and span the entrance to Hong Kong's port complex. It would form part of the new 7.6 kilometre Route 9. The 16 shortlisted candidates have been selected from among international bridge designers and architects. North American, European, Japanese and mainland firms are competing. Mr Lloyd said once the bridge design was chosen, the department would invite bids for a conventional consultancy deal for detailed design and construction supervision. Bridge construction is to start in 2003, although the remaining sections of Route 9 - a tunnel and a viaduct - will start a year earlier. If the cable-stayed option was chosen, the bridge could cost up to US$645 million, according to sources. They said the department preferred a cable-stayed bridge because it would be cheaper and quicker to build than a suspension one. With a main span of more than a kilometre and an overall length of 1.6 kilometres, a cable-stayed bridge would be at least 110 metres longer than the longest bridge of the same type, Japan's Tatara bridge. If the suspension-bridge option was selected, it could face problems. The northern tower of the bridge will be built on the new reclamation, due for completion in November 2004, which will be created as part of the Container Terminal 9 (CT9) project. However, if the cable option was picked, work could start on the site of Container Terminal 8 and half of the bridge could be completed by the time the CT9 reclamation was finished. INFRASTRUCTURE