Why not build a sea-crossing bridge between Hainan Island and the inland? No money or no technology?

do you know? In fact, Hainan Province does not border China's inland, and is separated by a Qiongzhou Strait that is only tens of kilometers wide. So why not build a sea-crossing bridge between the two? As a major infrastructure country, does China have no money or no technology?

You must know that the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge built by China can reach a total length of 55 kilometers and can be called an "architectural miracle". The Qiongzhou Strait is located between Leizhou Peninsula and Hainan Island in Guangdong Province. The largest width on the north and south sides is only 39.5 kilometers, and the narrowest width is only about 19.4 kilometers. In terms of width, the construction of the Qiongzhou Strait Cross-sea Bridge is definitely more difficult than The Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge is much smaller, but what makes everyone wonder is that the construction of the bridge across the Qiongzhou Strait has not started.

In fact, as early as 1994, Guangdong Province and Hainan Province have jointly held several seminars on the construction of sea-crossing bridges. The two provinces are also very careful about the construction of the Qiongzhou Strait Sea-crossing Bridge. mentioned, but there has been no substantial progress.

Until 2010, the transportation department of Zhanjiang, Guangdong announced that it would cost more than 140 billion yuan to build the Qiongzhou Strait Bridge. In 2011, the project was also written into the "Twelfth Five-Year Plan", but it still remains to this day. There is no sign of the start of construction. Although there have been repeated reports of the start of construction, the officials quickly refuted the rumors and did not give an accurate answer about the start time.

In fact, the most critical reason at present is that the project funds are not in place. You must know that 140 billion yuan of funds is not available. After all, only about 126 billion yuan was spent on the construction of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge. Now The construction cost of the Qiongzhou Strait Bridge is more expensive than that of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge. It is still quite difficult for Hainan Province to prepare such a huge project fund.

The fiscal revenue of Hainan Province in 2021 is only about 92.1 billion yuan, and the fiscal expenditure is already close to 200 billion yuan. It is indeed not easy for Hainan Province to allocate excess funds to the construction of the Qiongzhou Strait Cross-sea Bridge. The more important Qiongzhou Strait Cross-sea Bridge is not a rigid need for Guangdong Province. The economic development of Guangdong Province does not depend on this bridge, so Guangdong Province is definitely not willing to pay too much for such a terrifying project.

The Qiongzhou Strait Cross-sea Bridge is expected to cost 140 billion yuan. Neither Hainan nor Guangdong Province are willing to spend so much money to build it. If the funds are in place, can the Qiongzhou Strait Cross-sea Bridge be built? What are the obstacles to this project?

The width of the Qiongzhou Strait is not large, but it requires such high construction funds. In fact, the main reason is that the construction of the bridge across the Qiongzhou Strait is particularly difficult.

First of all, because the Qiongzhou Strait is an important sea passage connecting Hainan and the inland, there are countless ships sailing on the sea every day to transport goods, vehicles and tourists traveling to Hainan, including many giant ships that can carry heavy weights.

In order to ensure the normal passage of these giant ships, the bridge opening of the Qiongzhou Strait Cross-sea Bridge must be at least about 40 meters high, and the average depth of the strait itself is about 90 meters, indicating that the average height of the bridge piers already needs to be at It is about 130 meters, and this construction difficulty is relatively unacceptable in terms of our country's relatively strong infrastructure capacity.

Moreover, the slope of the seabed terrain of the Qiongzhou Strait is very undulating, and it is difficult to find a very stable fulcrum to build the bridge pier. In addition, the natural disaster factors of the Qiongzhou Strait need to be taken into account. Every summer, the Qiongzhou Strait is frequently hit by typhoons and tropical storms.

For example, in July 2014, the super typhoon "Wilmason" directly swept across the Qiongzhou Strait. The typhoon's wind force reached a maximum of 18, causing serious consequences of many injuries and deaths. Moreover, the Qiongzhou Strait is located in the west of China's coastal seismic belt, and seismic activity is very frequent. A moderate-intensity earthquake occurs almost every ten years, which makes the construction difficult again for infrastructure work.

In the event of a typhoon or an earthquake, the construction of the Qiongzhou Strait Bridge will have to be temporarily stopped, which will not have a small impact on the progress of the project. And even if it is completed, the Qiongzhou Strait Sea-Crossing Bridge needs to face the test of natural disasters every year. Therefore, the Qiongzhou Strait Sea-Crossing Bridge must have sufficient stability to ensure the safety of the bridge and the passing vehicles.

In addition, the Qiongzhou Strait Cross-sea Bridge also involves China's national defense and security issues. It is an important maritime traffic route between China and Vietnam and other countries. Therefore, due to various problems, the construction of the Qiongzhou Strait Cross-sea Bridge can only be stagnant.

Although the construction of the Qiongzhou Strait Cross-sea Bridge is very difficult, the voice of building this bridge has not stopped. Why is this? What are the benefits of building the Qiongzhou Strait Bridge?

The first construction of the Qiongzhou Strait Cross-sea Bridge will definitely be of great help to Hainan Province. It is precisely because of the inconvenience of transportation that cultural exchanges between Hainan and the inland are not smooth, and it is not conducive to the trade cooperation between Hainan and the inland. If the bridge across the Qiongzhou Strait is built, the traffic level of Guangdong and Hainan will be greatly improved, and tropical fruits from Hainan will be able to reach the inland faster for sale. convenient.

In fact, at present, the connection between Hainan and the inland can still rely on the Guangdong-Haizhou Railway, but this line can only carry more than 1,360 people during the ferry process, which does not greatly help Hainan's development. And because of the inconvenient transportation in Hainan, when bad weather occurs, many tourists and vehicles have to stay in Hainan Province, which also has a great impact on the normal social order of the local area.

For example, during the Spring Festival in 2018, a persistent heavy fog that was rare in decades turned the entire Qiongzhou Strait into a labyrinth. All ships did not dare to go to sea rashly. Millions of tourists and tens of thousands of cars were only Can temporarily stay in Hainan Province.

During the peak tourist season in Hainan, this kind of detention is actually very common, because the number of railway transportation and ship transportation is limited. The construction of the Qiongzhou Strait Cross-sea Bridge can solve this problem very well, to promote the tourism development and trade exchanges in Hainan, and greatly improve the economy of Hainan.

Moreover, the construction of the bridge across the Qiongzhou Strait is of great significance to China, so that China can give full play to the advantages of Hainan's tourism resources, build Hainan into an international tourism island, and add to China's tourism development plan. As for the construction of the Qiongzhou Strait Cross-sea Bridge, in fact, under the more scientific and comprehensive planning of the country in the future, it is not too far to realize.