Tsing Ma Bridge

Tsing Ma Bridge is a bridge in Hong Kong. It is the world's 16th-longest-span suspension bridge and was the second longest at the time of completion. The bridge was named after the two islands it connects, namely Tsing Yi and Ma Wan. It has two decks and carries both road and rail traffic, which also makes it the largest suspension bridge of this type. The bridge has a main span of 1,377 meters (4,518 ft) and a height of 206 meters (676 ft). The span is the longest of all bridges in the world carrying rail traffic.

The bridge was designed by Mott MacDonald. The firm designed an early iteration of the bridge in 1982, with a two-lane dual carriageway on the top deck, and a light railway on the lower deck. The bridge was redesigned beginning in 1989 to account for the three-lane dual highway and the heavier airport railway. The designers were inspired by the Forth Bridge in Scotland and the Severn Bridge in England.

Due to the frequent strong typhoons that affect Hong Kong, it was put through fairly rigorous wind tunnel testing. The Tsing Ma Bridge, which cost $920 million (HK$7.2 billion), opened in 1997. The bridge does not have any walkways, but it does have covered carriageways on the lower deck for times when extremely high winds are too much for cars to safely navigate. Three lanes in each direction make up the six lanes of car traffic on the 41-meter-wide (135-foot) bridge deck. When unusually powerful typhoons hit Hong Kong and the bridge deck is closed to traffic, the basement level of the structure houses two rail tracks and two covered carriageways that are used for maintenance access and traffic lanes.

Location: Hong Kong, China
Architect: Mott MacDonald