Western Harbour Crossing

Western Harbour Crossing
西區海底隧道

Western Harbour Crossing tunnel entrance and exit at West Kowloon side.
Overview
Coordinates	Coordinates: 22°18′5″N 114°9′24″E / 22.30139°N 114.15667°E / 22.30139; 114.15667
Status	completed
Route	part of Route 3
Start	West Kowloon
End	Sai Ying Pun
Operation
Constructed	August 1993 to April 1997
Owner	Western Harbour Tunnel Company
Operator	Western Harbour Tunnel Company
Traffic	automotive
Character	immersed tube
Toll	yes
Technical
Length	1975 m
No. of lanes	6 lanes (3-lane, 2-way)
Operating speed	80 km/h

The Western Harbour Crossing (abbreviation WHC, 西隧) is a dual 3-lane immersed tube tunnel in Hong Kong. It is the third road tunnel to cross Victoria Harbour, linking the newly reclaimed land in Yau Ma Tei on Kowloon West with Sai Ying Pun on Hong Kong Island. It was constructed by the Western Harbour Tunnel Company Limited (WHTCL) on a 30-year franchise (1993–2023) build-operate-transfer (BOT) model proposed by the Government.

Western Harbour Crossing (WHC) is the first three-lane road tunnel in Asia to be constructed using submerged pipe, and is the newest of the three Victoria Harbour road tunnels. It is part of the Airport Core Programme which was a comprehensive set of infrastructure projects associated with the airport at Chek Lap Kok. The tunnel carries on the Route 3 designation from the West Kowloon Highway, and connects to Route 4 on Hong Kong Island.

By the early 1980s, the Cross-Harbour Tunnel (CHT) was already stretched beyond its designed capacity of 80,000 vehicle-trips daily, with in excess of 120,000. Furthermore, on the basis of population growth projected from 5.125m in 1981 to 6.34m in 2001, the Second Comprehensive Transport Study (CTS-2) in the late 1980s forecast an explosion in the number of cross-harbour trips – individual person trips would increase by 86% from 1.4m to 2.6m, and goods vehicle trips by 129% from 34,000 to 78,000 by 2001.

Also, with the development of the Hong Kong International Airport, it was to be an important component of the strategic Airport Core Programme linking it to the Kwai Tsing Container Terminals and Hong Kong Island. There are 10 km of associated roads (40 km of lanes) and 17 bridges.