Far away bridge

“It should not be a problem, it is just a bridge,” Albert Chuck Chung Yin, a local engineer told Business Daily, regarding the recent pulling back by the central government from the plans of the Macau SAR Government to move ahead with the construction of a fourth bridge connecting Macau and Taipa.
The project is temporarily halted pending further research on the safety conditions of its waterways, according to information released last weekend by the entity in charge of the project, the Office for the Development of Infrastructure (GDI).
The project in question involves a 3.5 kilometre-long bridge linking the eastern side of the new artificial island for the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge (HZMB) – reclaimed on the outer shore of the Macau peninsula (Zone A) – to the land reclaimed near the Macau International Airport in Taipa (Zone E1), with a total cross-sea section of 2.87 kilometres, according to previous information provided by GDI.
At the end of June, Business Daily reported that the feasibility study project for the bridge, completed and submitted in November 2016, was being evaluated by the central government, according to information provided to this newspaper by the same office.
GDI claimed over the weekend that the local government received an official response in July, requiring further studies on ‘the safety conditions of navigation in channels’ to be carried out, GDI said in a release yesterday.
The office clarified that the ‘designer is communicating to the departments and committees interested to hear the opinions,’ adding that the government ‘intends to complete the complementary study as soon as possible in order to immediately submit the relevant information.’
The designer awarded the contract in early September 2016 is CCCC Highway Consultants Ltd. Macau Branch, whose parent company is headquartered in Beijing.

Calling it off?
Speaking to Business Daily, Chuck said that the local government might have “assumed” that the central government would give a “green light” for the project to begin.
“It is not the kind of project the Macau government would say yes to if there were not some indication that the project was very likely going to happen,” he suggested.
As for the safety concerns raised by the central government, the engineer claimed that it is unclear what is meant by this without further details being released by the office.
“The only element that I see could raise concern is maybe the wind, or typhoons. We don’t have earthquakes here.”
As for having to request authorization from the central government to allow the project to go ahead, a lawyer consulted by Business Daily said that it would have to do with the fact that the project was initiated before Macau was granted rights over its territorial waters in December 2015.
“In principle, Beijing would not have to green light anything of this sort, unless the first steps were taken before the territorial waters act was enacted. Discussion about this bridge harks back to some ten years ago, still at the time of Ao Man Long,” said the lawyer, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

Money talks
In total, the money already allocated to the project amounts to nearly MOP264 million.
In particular, the contract for the initial design of the bridge, awarded to CCCC Highway Consultants last year, was settled at MOP75.19 million.
The payment was divided into three installments over three years, with two installments each worth MOP33.8 million being paid in 2016 and 2017, respectively, and the final installment of MOP7.5 million to be paid in 2019.
Chuck explained that the design cost for this type of project “normally corresponds to 5 per cent of the total cost of the project.”
Hence, according to our estimations, the structure is likely to cost some MOP1.5 billion.
The contract awarded for the oversight and management of the project and the budget for the construction, granted in late June 2017 to Ove Arup & Partners from Hong Kong, a design and engineering company solutions, amounts to some MOP189 million.
The company is to provide the service for the next five years, from 2017 to 2021, with the first payment installment being the lowest, at MOP11 million. The other four installments range from MOP29.8 million to a maximum of MOP53.35 million.
Contacted by Business Daily, Ove Arup & Partners claimed on the phone that they were “not able to provide any other information at the moment.”
The office’s spokesperson added in a written response that they ‘have forwarded [our] enquiry to the client of this project for their further handling.’

Paying the bill
In case the project is called off, there are clauses to abide by and compensations that may be sought by the companies awarded the contracts.
On the one hand, the government might yet have to allocate extra funds if they require CCCC Highways or any other company to conduct further research as required by the central government, our sources claimed.
“If a company has to provide a different service from what is stated in its contract, then it is possible that it has to be paid on the side,” said our source on legal affairs.
On the other hand, if a contract gets cancelled, there may be clauses that guarantee due compensation.
“It is necessary to know the terms of the contract in detail. In general, however, we can say that if the company has not provided the service, it cannot request to recover the totality of the amount defined in the contract. But it might have rights to compensation,” explained the lawyer.
Contacted by Business Daily, GDI had not replied to our questions by the time this story went to print.