Tsing Ma Suspension Bridge

The Project

The Lantau Fixed Crossing consists of 2 double decked suspension bridges, a viaduct and approaches, which will connect Lantau Island to Tsing Yi Island via Ma Wan Island. Both road and rail will use the crossing.
The Tsing Ma Suspension Bridge will have a 1,377 metre main span (the world's second longest), and be 2,032 metres overall. The Kap Shui Mun Bridge will have a main span of 441 metres and be 691 metres long overall.
Construction of the towers of the suspension bridge has been completed. Erection of temporary footbridges, or catwalks, between the two towers of Tsing Ma Bridge is expected to be completed in June 1994, enabling spinning of the main cables to begin in July 1994.
The first 2 deck sections of the Kap Shui Mun Bridge have been put in position as at 21 September 1994.

As a key part of the Lantau Fixed Crossing, the Tsing Ma Bridge will span across Tsing Yi and Ma Wan islands to become the world's longest two-deck suspension bridge carrying both road and rail tracks.
The 40m-wide bridge deck will have two carriageways on the upper level, each of three lanes, for road traffic, and the lower level will contain two rail tracks and two protected emergency lanes for road traffic.

The Construction

The bridge will have a fully suspended main span supported by two portal-braced, reinforced-concrete towers. The bridge deck will be suspended from two main cables passing over the main towers and secured into massive concrete anchorages at each end, on Tsing Yi and Ma Wan islands. The main cables will be retained in steel saddles at th top of each tower to accommodate the cable geometry and to transfer their loads to the towers.
The two towers comprise twin columns which taper as the height increases, with the legs constructed by continuous slipforming. Made up of some 30,000 tonnes of specialized, high-tensile, galvanized steel wire, the two main cables were built up wire-by-wire by the in-situ aerial spinning process, with each cable spun and wrapped from 32,000 wires.
The bridge deck, formed by 96 fabricated steel sections measuring some 40m wide by 7.3m deep, is supported at intervals of 18m throughout is length by suspenders connected to the main cables.

Images of Tsing Ma Suspension Bridge under Construction

Genreal Overview
Assembly Crane
Ma Wan Anchorage
Ma Wan Abutment
Anchorage of the suspension Cables

The Participants

The Scale



  Total length ........................ 2,200 m

  Length of main span ................. 1,377 m

  Height of towers ...................... 206 m

  Diameter of main cable ................ 1.1 m

  Clearance height ....................... 62 m

Quantity of materials:



  Structural steelwork ............... 50,000 t

  Concrete ....................... 500,000 cu m

  Wire in cables ................... 175,000 km



  Commencement ....................... mid-1992

  Completion ......................... May 1997

  Construction cost ............ HK$7.2 billion