I settled in Macao at the time when the Sai Wan Bridge was being built. The view was truly spectacular: colossal piles of concrete were being planted in the murky water on both sides of the channel between Eastern Taipa and the peninsula, and this cyclopean endeavor of 2,200 meters reflected the promise of a giant step forward if not for mankind at least for the future development of Macao. Symbolically, its “M” shape reminded us proudly of the initial letter of the SAR name in most Latin scripts, and let’s be honest, although the pressing need for a new passage to the islands seemed questionable when it opened in 2004, everybody felt it was indeed an elegant piece of suspended motorway. Moreover, for the first time ever, all districts of Macao would remain accessible thanks to its emergency lower deck tunnel even when hit by the worst typhoons. Beautiful, visionary, practical…
But integrity, unfortunately, does not only apply to territory. Later on, in the wake of the Ao Man Long scandal, the most valuable piece of infrastructure since the handover became known as the “corruption bridge”: in order to win the tender, the general manager of Chon Tit (Macau) Investment and Development, the contractor, had paid a kickback of 14 million Patacas to the former Secretary for Transport and Public Works. Since then, and especially because of the future construction of the light rapid-transit (LRT), several flaws in design have surfaced, most importantly regarding ventilation systems and emergency evacuation routes in the lower deck tunnel and of course the capacity (or more precisely the lack thereof) of the bridge's 96 supporting cables to meet loading requirements for the additional weight of the LRT. If we discard rust, potholes and cracks, only the surface of the bridge remained unscathed, but that was counting without the DSAT’s most recent resolve.
As it is often the case, everything started with a noble intention. Rightly concerned by a spate of serious road casualties involving motorcycles on the Sai Wan Bridge, the DSAT decided a few months ago to go ahead with a plan to create a dedicated lane for motorcycles on the bridge. Fair enough. Previous talks regarding exclusive two-wheelers lanes on that bridge had already occurred in 2007 when the use of the lower deck tunnel was justly considered, just to be dismissed because of lack of ventilation systems (remind you of something?). What came as a shock this time around is that the motorcycles-only lane would be placed on the right side of the road, thus contradicting a general rule that motorcycles should keep on their left and imposing an intricate scheme contrary to the most basic common sense — at least in four locations, the main gangway for cars is reduced to a single lane!
This new scheme does belong to the generic category of absurd decision making as it persistently and fundamentally acts against its professed objective: security is far from being guaranteed, as the accident that occurred on August 27 just reminded us, just eight days after the supposedly provisional plan went into effect. It is doubly absurd as the new scheme has now created problems of its own pertaining to practicality and fluidity of traffic—I can predict monster traffic jams after school resumes on Monday September 3rd. DSAT, please check and act—amend or scrap! As we all very well know the road to hell is paved with good intentions!
Published in Macau Daily Times on August 31st 2012
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