Macao government departments have begun installing equipment and performing tests and trial runs of Boundary Crossing Area facilities on its end of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge (HZMB) in order to better assist in the process leading to the launch of the bridge.

The Border Control Bureau of the Guangdong Provincial Public Security Department handed over the facility to the Macao Customs Service at midnight on 15 March. Boundary security and public safety is now under Macau’s jurisdiction.

The HZMB Macau Border Crossing Checkpoint is on the Zhuhai-Macai frontier port island in south Gongbei Bay. A southwest road leads to Macau and the main bridge section extending northeast to Hong Kong.

The checkpoint is the largest of the three for the HZMB Bridge, covering 71.6 hectares with a floor area of 600,000 square meters.

There is a building for customs clearance and two public car parks. The latter are located respectively at the east and west end of the artificial island with a total of 6,800 spaces for private vehicles and another 2,000 for motorcycles.

Facilities at the Macau Border Crossing Checkpoint also comprise 53 buildings – totally around 40,000 square meters of gross floor area – for municipal use and about 200,000 square meters of space dedicated to infrastructure including a road network, tunnels, flyovers, railway platforms and municipal facilities.

Operation of the infrastructure at the Macau Border Crossing Checkpoint – and formulation of policy regarding general public access to the area – is respectively being coordinated by the Secretary for Transport and Public Works. The Secretary for Security is responsible for the coordination of work relating to law enforcement and general management of the area.

The Government’s effort also involves setting up a mechanism for coordination between the bodies responsible for managing the bridge and the Macau public departments responsible for managing the boundary crossing facilities.

The timing of the launch of transportation services and associated transportation facilities for the bridge is dependent on completion of preparatory works for the Macau Border Crossing Checkpoint, as well as on the schedule for launching the bridge itself.