HK's Cross-Harbour Tunnel reopens

Hong Kong authorities reopened the Cross-Harbour Tunnel on Wednesday after violent protests forced it to close for two weeks.

Chief Secretary for Administration Matthew Cheung Kin-chung announced at an inter-departmental news conference on Tuesday afternoon that the crucial artery, linking Kowloon and Hong Kong Island, will reopen to traffic, after 800 government staff and contractors spent days clearing up the site.

All 37 cross-harbor bus routes, which had been suspended or diverted, will also reopen, said Deputy Transport Commissioner Macella Lee Sui-chun. The toll systems are now working except for the credit card charging service, she added.

Temporary free ferry services — from Kowloon City and Hung Hom to Wan Chai — will continue until Friday evening. About 9,000 passengers were using this service to travel across the harbor each day while normal services were suspended.

The footbridges at tunnel portals will also reopen, said Ng Wai-keung, deputy director of highways. The bridges were burned by hails of gasoline bombs hurled by protesters. Water-filled barriers will be established on the bridges to help prevent future disruption to the highway underneath.

Cheung said repair work since Friday had been "a race against time".

The government had given top priority to the safety of drivers and commuters; it had been concerned about the inconvenience being suffered by Hong Kong residents, said Cheung.

"Damaging things are easy, but repairing them is much harder," Cheung said. He urged everyone in society to return to rational, calm behavior so life could return to normal in the city.

Cheung did not disclose the cost of cleaning up the debris and repairing the damage. He simply said that "restoring traffic matters more than the cost".

The violence had left the tunnel looking like a "war zone", with fire hydrants and toll booths damaged, he said.

The tunnel has been shut down since Nov 13 after radicals set up barricades, hurled gasoline bombs at toll booths and set ablaze two footbridges that connect the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

Hong Kong residents were severely inconvenienced after the tunnel closed, as people living in the New Territories had to spend additional hours going to work and returning home, Cheung said. About 110,000 vehicles crossed Victoria Harbour via the Cross-Harbour Tunnel daily before the suspension.

An estimated 372 cleaners were deployed to work on areas near the tunnel portals, removing 42 metric tons of garbage, explained Diane Wong, deputy director of Food and Environmental Hygiene. The cleaning operation had often been difficult for staff as the roads were covered with gasoline, she said.