Kai Tak Tunnel
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Kai Tak Tunnel (traditional Chinese: 啟德隧道; simplified Chinese: 启德隧道; pinyin: Qǐdé Suìdào; Cantonese Yale: kai2 dak1 seui6 dou6), formerly known as the Airport Tunnel (機場隧道) is a tunnel in New Kowloon, Hong Kong, which connects the Kowloon Bay and To Kwa Wan areas by going beneath the former Hong Kong International Airport (Kai Tak Airport). It is part of Route 5. It provides a quick link between the two ends of the tunnel, as before the construction of the tunnel vehicles have to detour through Kowloon City to reach the other end.[1][2]
Construction of the tunnel started in 1976, but because of the difficulties in digging under the airport runway, it was not complete until 1982. It was known as Kowloon Bay Tunnel (九龍灣隧道) at the time of its opening, and it was also the first tunnel in Hong Kong to be toll-free.[2]
The tunnel consists of a pair of tubes of about 7m diameter each, 1.26 km long. The southern tube carries west-bound traffic from Kowloon Bay to Ma Tau Kok. A point of interest is that the eastbound tunnel branches off onto Sung Wong Toi Road.[3] It is the only major vehicular tunnel in Hong Kong built by the cut-and-cover technique.[2]
Many major express bus routes of Kowloon Motor Bus between Kowloon and the eastern end of New Kowloon travel through the Airport Tunnel. Most of them run between the Kwun Tong District and Tsim Sha Tsui. They include 13X, 98D, 98P, 215X, 219P, 219X, 296D. Westbound departures of routes 11X and 28 also run through Kai Tak Tunnel. In total, an estimated 60000 vehicles use the tunnel each day.[3]
With Kai Tak Airport's shutdown in 1998, the Airport Tunnel no longer fulfilled its name. The Hong Kong Government announced on March 2, 2006 that the tunnel be renamed to Kai Tak Tunnel, effective from May 4, 2006, after several years of consultation with groups including the Kowloon City District Council.[4]
