Agreement was reached on May 23 that construction will begin next year of a sea channel across the wide mouth of the Huangmao River to further connect Zhuhai with Jiangmen and western Guangdong.

Guangdong Transport Group was contracted for the project and will help renovate and upgrade expressway exits and entrances in cooperation with the Gaolan Port Economic Zone. The Huangmao Bridge Construction Administration was established on May 24. 

The Huangmao Sea Channel will be 30.32 km (19 miles) long with 9 km (6 miles) in Zhuhai and 11.9 km (7 miles) across the sea. It is estimated to cost 12.5 billion yuan ($1.8 billion). Three cable-stayed bridges will support a dual six-lane highway with a designed speed of 100 kmph (62 mph).

In Zhuhai, the sea channel will be connected to the Hezhou-Gaolan Port Expressway (west extension line of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge) and Gaolan Port Expressway. It will cross the Huangmao River in the west to Chixi Town of Jiangmen's Taishan, merge into the Guangdong West Coast Expressway via Zhonghe Interchange, and lead to the Xintai-Taierzhuang Expressway in Shandong Province.

Huangmao Sea Channel

Its connection to the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao, Humen, and Huangpu bridges, Shenzhen-Zhongshan Bridge that is now under construction, together with the proposed Lianhua Mt Channel will form a Greater Bay Area transport network.

Upon completion in 2023, the bridge will shorten the distance from Jiangmen's Guanghai Bay to Macao by 18 km (11 miles), and to the Gaolan Economic Zone by 30 km (19 miles). 

Crisscrossed transport network [Photos courtesy WeChat account: zhuhaifabu]