The Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau bridge is jinxed. The bridge is one of the government's key infrastructure projects costing over HK$80 billion and work was to begin last year. If it hadn't been for an elderly litigant from Tung Chung with diabetes and a heart condition pursuing a judicial review of the project on environmental grounds, construction would be racing ahead by now.
The case reviewed the director of environmental protection's decision to approve the environmental impact assessment and issue a permit to the Highways Department in 2009 for construction to start. The litigant argued that the government had yet to conduct studies on various environmental grounds and the director should not have issued the permit. The judge ruled in favour of the litigant on just one of seven grounds - the one related to public health, because the government had not studied how the bridge would increase air pollution and what the resultant effect would be on the people.
The project is now further delayed but rather than huffing and puffing, government officials should acknowledge that the case exposed the project's Achilles heel. The government did not consider the public health impact of the bridge, which would result in more traffic and therefore more vehicular pollution.
The real issues are whether the bridge is still needed and, if so, what the government needs to do to address public health concerns.
We may have no say on whether the bridge is still needed because the mainland side has already started to build its section. The two ends were supposed to come together in 2016. It would take very courageous decision-makers on both sides of the boundary to re-open assessment on the basis of need and this is unlikely to happen.
Firstly, for planners, the bridge is seen as the last piece of road infrastructure in the region, connecting the entire Pearl River Delta and providing a direct link between Hong Kong and the western side of the delta. The benefits may include convenience and having an alternative route from Hong Kong to the mainland, without having to go through Shenzhen.
