West Kowloon Highway

West Kowloon Highway (Chinese: 西九龍公路; pinyin: Xī Jiǔlóng Gōnglù; Cantonese Yale: sai1 gau2 lung4 gung1 lou6) is a section of Route 3 in Hong Kong, built as part of the Airport Core Programme. This dual-three-lane expressway runs for 4.2 km, connecting Western Harbour Crossing in the south with Tsing Kwai Highway in the north. While the southern section of the road is at grade, the northern part is on a viaduct in order to accommodate the MTR Tung Chung line and the Airport Express.

West Kowloon Highway, near Olympic station

It is not to be confused with the older West Kowloon Corridor (currently part of Route 5), which is partly parallel to the West Kowloon Highway.

This expressway originally had a speed limit of 80 km/h, but it was increased to 100 km/h because of the smooth shape of the road.

History

The highway was constructed as part of the Airport Core Programme; a major function of the new highway was to facilitate access to the new Hong Kong International Airport from Hong Kong Island and Kowloon. It was built entirely on the West Kowloon Reclamation, an area of artificial land reclaimed from Victoria Harbour, also under the Airport Core Programme.

The road design and engineering consultancy was awarded to Freeman Fox Maunsell in 1990.[1]

The northern section (between Kwai Chung and Cherry Street in Tai Kok Tsui) was built by a consortium comprising Kumagai Gumi, Maeda Corporation, and China Road and Bridge Corporation. The southern section (between Tai Kok Tsui and the Western Harbour Crossing toll plaza) was constructed by Aoki Corporation. The two contracts commenced on 2 August 1993 and 31 August 1993 respectively.[2]

The road was opened on 19 February 1997.

See also

References
  1. "Expressway go-ahead". South China Morning Post. 20 September 1990. p. 7.
  2. "List of Current Contracts as at 31/12/96". Hong Kong Airport Core Programme. Hong Kong Government. Retrieved 13 May 2020.
Preceded by
Western Harbour Crossing		 Hong Kong Route 3

West Kowloon Highway		 Succeeded by
Tsing Kwai Highway

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