Is Hong Kong’s giant bridge a road to nowhere or the path to new opportunities?

© Beethoven1612

Here’s a great read from the South China Morning Post on what will be, depending on your point of view, either one of the most magnificent infrastructure projects of the early 21^st century, or the most massive of white elephants: the 35km bridge between Hong Kong, Zuhai and Macao. It has gone over its budget by at least $1.5bn (that’s US dollars, not Hong Kong), has suffered from numerous delays and seen at last 10 workers die and as many as 600 injured in nearly 300 separate incidents. Plus, of course, there has been more than one corruption scandal, and given that it doesn’t boast a rail component, critics have wondered about its suitability for freight. “The sole purpose of this bridge was to cater to the development needs of the mainland. As a result, all professional considerations such as its design have not been fully taken into account,” one pessimist delicately put it.