On June 16, the ShenZhong Link (or Shenzhen-Zhongshan Link) completed the project acceptance, marking the end of a 7-year construction period.
The next step involves obtaining approval from the relevant authorities before being ready to open to traffic by the end of this month. Once open, the journey from Shenzhen to Zhongshan will take just 30 minutes.
The Link consists of an undersea tunnel, two bridges, and two artificial islands, making it one of the most challenging cross-sea cluster projects in the world.
At present, the Lingdingyang Bridge has been renamed ShenZhong Bridge, and the undersea tunnel is now known as the ShenZhong Tunnel, which are consistent with the name of the whole project.
It is the key engineering project of the G2518 national expressway network across the Pearl River Estuary, with the Humen Bridge about 30 kilometers to the north and the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge about 31 kilometers to the south.
With a total length of 24 kilometers, the Link features a bridge section of 17 kilometers and boasts the world's first underwater expressway interchange.
During the 7-year construction, it has broken ten world records, with five achieved in the construction of the ShenZhong Bridge and five in the construction of the immersed tunnel.