Eastern Harbour Crossing

Eastern Harbour Crossing
Part of Route 2
Route information
Maintained by Highways Department
Length 3.3 km (2.1 mi)
Existed 1989[1] – present
Major junctions
West end Quarry Bay
  2 in total;
Route 4 at Quarry Bay
East end Lam Tin (near Cha Kwo Ling)
Location
Major cities Kwun Tong, Quarry Bay
Highway system
Hong Kong Strategic Route and Exit Number System
Eastern Harbour Crossing
Entrance to Eastern Harbour Crossing at Cha Kwo Ling
Traditional Chinese 東區海底隧道
Simplified Chinese 东区海底隧道

The Eastern Harbour Crossing, abbreviated as "EHC" (東隧), is a tunnel in Hong Kong. It is a combined road and MTR rail link under Victoria Harbour between Quarry Bay in Hong Kong Island and Cha Kwo Ling in Kowloon East.

History

The Hong Kong Government negotiated with several consortia to adopt the Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) model in planning new tunnels in different parts of the city.

In 1986, the government gave New Hong Kong Tunnel the right to run the Tunnel on a 30-year franchisee with lease expiring in August 2016. The tunnel features two components, a road part and a rail part:

  • The road part of the tunnel is branded as Eastern Harbour Tunnel, although the government refers to the tunnel itself as Eastern Harbour Crossing. The tunnel is governed by the Eastern Harbour Crossing Ordinance. The road part links the Island Eastern Corridor in Hong Kong Island, Lei Yue Mun Road, Tseung Kwan O Tunnel and the Kwun Tong Bypass in Kowloon East.
  • The rail part runs between Quarry Bay and Yau Tong stations of the MTR Tseung Kwan O Line.

The powerful Chinese investment group CITIC Pacific is interested in both parts, controlling the road part (71% stake) and has a 50% stake in the rail part. CITIC also controls 50% of the Western Harbour Tunnel Company.

The Tunnel is located right next to a public housing residential complex – Yau Lai Estate.

Tunnel tolls

Tolls are collected manually or electronically in both directions at the toll plaza on the Kwun Tong side.

CategoryVehicleToll ($)[Note 1][2]
1Motorcycle13
2Private car25
Taxi
3Public light bus38
Private light bus
4Light goods vehicle (less than 5.5 tonnes)
5Medium goods vehicle (5.5 to 24 tonnes)50
6Heavy goods vehicle (more than 24 tonnes)75
7Single-decker bus50
8Double-decker bus75
Additional axle25

Notes

  1. ↑ As of 4 November 2012

Interchanges

Eastern Harbour Crossing
Westbound exits Exit number Eastbound exits
End of Route 2
intersects with Island Eastern Corridor
End Eastern Harbour Crossing Start Eastern Harbour Crossing
Tai Koo Shing,Sai Wan Ho,Shau Kei Wan, Chai Wan,Siu Sai Wan, Stanley, Shek O
Island Eastern Corridor 		1A no exit
Quarry Bay,North Point, Causeway Bay, Happy Valley, Aberdeen
Island Eastern Corridor 		1B no exit
Eastern Harbour Crossing
Start Eastern Harbour Crossing End Eastern Harbour Crossing
continues as Lei Yue Mun Road

Traffic

According to the operator, in 2013, a total number of 26.3 million vehicles used the Eastern Harbour Crossing. The average daily throughput was 72.1 thousands.

There are many cross-harbour bus routes that travel through the Eastern Harbour Crossing, operated by Kowloon Motor Bus, New World First Bus and Citybus.

Detailed bus routes

Controversies

In June 2005, CITIC decided to raise the toll for using Eastern Harbour Crossing from HK$15 to HK$25 for private vehicles and up to 67% for other classes of vehicles, under the fare adjustment mechanism derived from the build-operate-transfer (BOT) model.[3] This increase aroused criticisms that the model was detrimental to the public interest, with the increase shifting more traffic to the already congested Cross-Harbour Tunnel.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Transport in Hong Kong – Tunnels and Bridges". Transport Department of the Government of Hong Kong. Retrieved 29 October 2012.
  2. ↑ "Transport Department Tunnels and Bridges". Transport Department of the Government of Hong Kong. Archived from the original on 9 May 2013. Retrieved 3 November 2012.
  3. ↑ Ng, Dennis (4 May 2005). "Toll hike ignites call for government to take control". The Standard. Archived from the original on 16 October 2007. Retrieved 27 October 2006.
Preceded by
Southern Terminus		 Hong Kong Route 2

Eastern Harbour Crossing		 Succeeded by
Lei Yue Mun Road

Coordinates: 22°17′58.15″N 114°13′51.97″E / 22.2994861°N 114.2311028°E / 22.2994861; 114.2311028

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.