Jake's View | What's with Hong Kong's bridge to an illusion of the past?

As the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge (HZMB), the first major combined bridge and tunnel sea-crossing project in China, edges closer towards completion, a panel of distinguished speakers will discuss the probable pros and cons the new mega infrastructure project will provide for Hong Kong.

This is part of an ongoing debate series we are sponsoring and as I saw plenty of the pro argument for the project in the write-up for the debate and little of the con, I thought I might provide some of that con myself.

What we have here is a fine case of defying reality and falling victim to the blandishments of engineers who, asked for their opinion on any concrete-pouring exercise, will always say: "Yeah, yeah, yeah, great idea, let's build it, yeah, yeah, yeah." They're like bird dogs looking at a shotgun - slaver, slaver, slaver.

The reality, already apparent 15 years ago, was that Hong Kong would gradually lose its pre-eminent position as a port city in the Pearl River Delta. It simply does not make sense to transport goods from Guangdong through an unnecessary border and then along the extra distance of traffic-clogged roadways in a densely packed city.