The government announced yesterday five names shortlisted by a selection committee from names proposed by residents during the government’s naming campaign for the future fourth Macau-Taipa bridge, the construction of which is now scheduled to be completed in the next quarter.
The five shortlisted names are: Macau Bridge, New Urban Bridge, Kiang Hoi (“Mirror Sea”) Bridge, Silver Jubilee Bridge, and Hou Kong (“Oyster River”) Bridge.
The government will choose one of the five shortlisted names for the fourth Macau-Taipa bridge’s official name.
The Public Works Bureau (DSOP), the public entity organising the naming campaign, announced the five shortlisted names in a statement yesterday.
Kiang Hoi and Hou Kong are names by which Macau is traditionally known in Cantonese.
Macau celebrates the 25th anniversary of its return to the motherland this year, i.e., silver jubilee.
The Macau Special Administrative Region (MSAR) was established on December 20, 1999.
The fourth Macau-Taipa bridge will connect the Zone A and Zone E1 land reclamation areas, which are both new urban areas neither of which currently has inhabitants.
Zone A off the peninsula’s north-eastern coast is primarily being developed for public housing projects, where construction of three subsidised home-ownership scheme (HOS) estates is scheduled to be completed later this year.
According to Macau’s official urban master plan, some of the plots on Zone E1 off Pac On in Taipa will be earmarked for residential buildings.
The submission period of the bridge’s naming campaign ran between December 16 and January 15, during which local residents aged at least 18 could submit their proposals.
The campaign only accepted names in Macau’s two official languages, Chinese and Portuguese. Each proponent could suggest up to three names, either in Chinese or Portuguese, or in both languages.
Each person was required to write a brief description of each of the proposed name or names, explaining their proposal.
Only those holding an account of the government’s Macao One Account e-service could submit their proposals.
A total of 5,703 residents submitted their proposed names during the naming campaign’s submission period. The 5,703 proponents submitted about 14,400 identical or different names.
According to yesterday’s DSOP statement, the selection committee that has shortlisted the five names comprises 19 members chosen from the government, consisting of community association representatives as well as professionals primarily from the city’s cultural sector.
The selection committee had first chosen 37 different names from the submitted names, before the committee held a meeting yesterday where its members shortlisted the five names, the DSOP statement said.
All those who proposed the same name chosen by the government will enter a lucky draw, where the winner will receive a cash prize of 10,000 patacas plus a souvenir, while the first runner-up will receive 8,000 patacas plus a souvenir. The second runner-up will receive 6,000 patacas plus a souvenir.
In addition to the winner and the first and second runners-up, the lucky draw will also choose up to 50 others who proposed the name chosen by the government. Each of them will receive a souvenir.
The city’s current three sea-crossing bridges connecting the Macau peninsula and Taipa island are the Governor Nobre de Carvalho Bridge (informally known as the “old bridge”) which opened in 1974, Friendship Bridge which opened in 1994, and Sai Van Bridge which opened in January 2005.
Naming campaign in 2004
In 2004, the government also held a campaign asking local residents to propose names for the third Macau-Taipa bridge when it finally chose Sai Van Bridge as its official name.
The government announced the third Macau-Taipa bridge’s official name, Sai Van Bridge, in early December 2004, after choosing from the five names shortlisted by a selection committee from about 1,000 names proposed by more than 400 local residents. The other four shortlisted names at that time were Macau Bridge, Hou Kong (“Oyster River”) Bridge, Hou Kiang (“Oyster Mirror”) Bridge, and Ma Kok Bridge.
After Macau Bridge and Hou Kong Bridge were two of five shortlisted names in the 2004 naming campaign, both are again two of five shortlisted names this time.
The same as Kiang Hoi and Hou Kong, Hou Kiang is also a name by which Macau is traditionally known in Cantonese.
Sai Van, which means “west bay” in Cantonese, is the geographic name of the area off the south-western tip of the Macau peninsula where the third Macau-Taipa bridge is located.
Ma Kok is the Cantonese name of Barra (“Harbour Entrance”) near Sai Van.
The 5.27-billion-pataca fourth Macau-Taipa bridge project got off the ground on March 26, 2020.
The 3,085-metre-long bridge will have eight vehicular lanes – four in each direction. One lane in each direction will be for motorcycles only.
Constructors complete connecting the northern main span of the fourth Macau-Taipa bridge early this month.
– Photo: DSOP
