New Highway In North District To Open On May 26

The Heung Yuen Wai Highway in the North District, which features the longest tunnel section in Hong Kong, will open on May 26.

The highway is aimed to connect the Fanling Highway with the planned Heung Yuen Wai Border Control Point that is slated to open by the end of this year.

A part of the highway will boast the longest tunnel as the one in Lung Shan Tunnel at 4.8km will be longer than the one at Tate's Cairn, which is 3.95km.

Motorists can now use the new road to reach Fanling Highway from Sha Tau Kok and Ta Kwu Ling, instead of relying only on Sha Tau Kok Road and Ping Che road respectively.

The new highway will enable motorists going from Sha Tau Kok to reach Fanling Highway in four minutes, from the current 15 minutes while the trip from Ta Kwu Ling will take just eight minutes, from the current 24 minutes.

But for public transport commuters, there’s only one minibus service from Sha Tau Kok to Fanling during morning peak hours on weekdays, until the new border point opens.

Stanley Chiang, who chairs the Lok Ma Chau China-Hong Kong Freight Association, said the new highway can save truck drivers a lot of journey time.

He said Shenzhen authorities have notified the truck drivers two years ago that by 2024, cross border trucks will have to use the Heung Yuen Wai and Shenzhen Bay borders, instead of the one in Huanggang which is being used by most now.