Airport Access
The relocation of the airport to Chek Lap Kok requires additional road links to serve the new airport and its supporting community. A new expressway serving the airport and Tung Chung new town, comprising the North Lantau Highway, Lantau Link, Cheung Tsing Highway, Cheung Tsing Tunnel, Tsing Kwai Highway, West Kowloon Highway and Western Harbour Crossing were completed and opened to traffic in 1997.
The whole new airport access measures a total of some 34km. Leaving the airport, drivers will come onto the 12.5km North Lantau Highway which was built along the northern coastline of Lantau Island. At the northern tip of Lantau Island, it joins the 4.2km long Lantau Link. The Lantau Link comprises the cable-stayed Kap Shui Mun Bridge, the Ma Wan viaduct and, of course the spectacular Tsing Ma Bridge. The main span of Tsing Ma Bridge measures 1,377m, making it the longest suspension bridge in the world carrying both road and rail traffic.
At the northwestern part of Tsing Yi Island, the Lantau Link is connected with the Cheung Tsing Highway which in turn links with the Tsing Kwai Highway. At Lai Chi Kok, the airport access continues along the 4.2km long West Kowloon Highway that runs along the western coastline of the Kowloon Peninsula. Both Tsing Kwai Highway and West Kowloon Highway are essentially on viaducts, until the route finally enters Hong Kong's first dual three-lane immersed tube tunnel, the Western Harbour Crossing, which measures 2km from the portal on the West Kowloon Reclamation near Yau Ma Tei to the exit and the end of the new airport access, at Sai Ying Pun on Hong Kong Island.
The Tuen Mun – Chek Lap Kok Link, fully open to traffic in 2020, is linking the Hong Kong Port with North Lantau and the Northwest New Territories. It serves as an alternative and emergency route of the North Lantau Highway to the airport.