Eastern Harbour Crossing

Eastern Harbour Crossing
Eastern Harbour Crossing
Traditional Chinese	東區海底隧道
Simplified Chinese	东区海底隧道
Hanyu Pinyin
showTranscriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu Pinyin	Dōngqū Hǎidǐ Suìdào
Yue: Cantonese
Yale Romanization	Dūngkēui Hóidái Seuihdouh
Jyutping	dung1 keoi1 hoi2 dai2 seoi6 dou6

Eastern Harbour Crossing
Eastern Harbour Crossing
Part of Route 2
Route information
	Maintained by Highways Department
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
	Transport in Hong Kong; Routes; Roads and Streets;

Eastern Harbour Crossing
	Entrance to Eastern Harbour Crossing at Cha Kwo Ling in July 2008
Overview
Location	Beneath Victoria Harbour, between Quarry Bay and Lam Tin (near Cha Kwo Ling)
Coordinates	Coordinates: 22°17′58.15″N 114°13′51.97″E / 22.2994861°N 114.2311028°E
Status	Active
System	Part of Route 2
Start	Quarry Bay
End	Lam Tin (near Cha Kwo Ling)
Operation
Opened	21 September 1989; 31 years ago
Owner	Hong Kong Government
Operator	CITIC Pacific (71% - road / 50% - rail)
Traffic	Vehicular and Rail
Character	immersed tube
Vehicles per day	72100
Technical
Line length	3.3 kilometres (2.1 mi)
No. of tracks	2 tracks (1 per direction) in MTR tunnel
No. of lanes	4 lanes (2 lanes per direction) in road tunnel with 6 lanes (3 lanes per direction) on exit
Track gauge	1,432 mm (4 ft 8+3⁄8 in)
Operating speed	70 kilometres per hour (43 mph) (within road tunnel) ; 50 kilometres per hour (31 mph) (exit and entrance to road tunnel)

The Eastern Harbour Crossing, abbreviated as "EHC" (Chinese: 東隧), is a combined road-rail tunnel that crosses beneath Victoria Harbour in Hong Kong. Opened on 21 September 1989, it connects Quarry Bay, Hong Kong Island and Cha Kwo Ling, 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 territory.

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.^{[citation needed]} The tunnel features two components, a road part and a rail part:

The road part of the tunnel is branded by the operator 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, Tseung Kwan O——Lam Tin Tunnel and the Kwun Tong Bypass in Kowloon East.
The rail part, lying to the southeast of the road part, runs between Quarry Bay and Yau Tong stations of the MTR Tseung Kwan O line.

The Chinese investment group CITIC Pacific is interested in^{[clarification needed]} both parts, controlling the road part (71% stake) and has^{[needs update]} a 50% stake in the rail part. CITIC also controls 50% of the Western Harbour Tunnel Company.

The Kowloon tunnel portal is located next to a public housing estate, Yau Lai Estate.

Tunnel tolls[]

Tolls are collected manually or electronically in both directions at the toll plaza on the Cha Kwo Ling side.

Category	Vehicle	Toll ($)^{[Note 1]}^[2]
1	Motorcycle	13
2	Private car	25
2	Taxi	25
3	Public light bus	38
3	Private light bus
4	Light goods vehicle (less than 5.5 tonnes)
5	Medium goods vehicle (5.5 to 24 tonnes)	50
6	Heavy goods vehicle (more than 24 tonnes)	75
7	Single-decker bus	50
8	Double-decker bus	75
	Additional axle	25

Notes[]

^ 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[]

As of 2018, there are 46 bus routes passing through the tunnel.

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.

References[]

^ "Transport in Hong Kong – Tunnels and Bridges". Transport Department of the Government of Hong Kong. Retrieved 29 October 2012.
^ "Transport Department Tunnels and Bridges". Transport Department of the Government of Hong Kong. Archived from the original on 11 January 2013. Retrieved 3 November 2012.
^ 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.

External links[]

Official site

Preceded by Southern Terminus	Hong Kong Route 2 Eastern Harbour Crossing	Succeeded by Lei Yue Mun Road

[2] As of 4 November 2012

[1] "Transport in Hong Kong – Tunnels and Bridges". Transport Department of the Government of Hong Kong. Retrieved 29 October 2012.

[3] "Transport Department Tunnels and Bridges". Transport Department of the Government of Hong Kong. Archived from the original on 11 January 2013. Retrieved 3 November 2012.

[4] 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.

[1]

[Note 1]

[2]

[3]

[α]

[α]

show v t Major road tunnels in Hong Kong
On Hong Kong Island	Aberdeen Tunnel Central–Wan Chai Bypass Tunnel
Crossings of Victoria Harbour	Cross-Harbour Tunnel Eastern Harbour Crossing Western Harbour Crossing
In Kowloon and New Kowloon	Central Kowloon Route Kai Tak Tunnel
Between New Kowloon and the New Territories	Eagle's Nest Tunnel and Sha Tin Heights Tunnel^[α] Lion Rock Tunnel Tate's Cairn Tunnel Tseung Kwan O Tunnel^[α] Tseung Kwan O-Lam Tin Tunnel
In the New Territories	Airport Tunnel Cheung Shan Tunnel Cheung Tsing Tunnel Discovery Bay Tunnel Lung Shan Tunnel Nam Wan Tunnel Scenic Hill Tunnel Shing Mun Tunnels Tai Lam Tunnel Tai Wai Tunnel Tuen Mun–Chek Lap Kok Link (Northern Connection)
α. ^ ^a ^b Entirely in the New Territories, but all access roads on one side pass through Kowloon. Italics indicate that a tunnel is under construction.