The government yesterday announced the official name of Macau’s fourth sea-crossing bridge connecting the Macau peninsula and Taipa island: Macau Bridge.
The name chosen by the government was among five shortlisted by a selection committee last month from names proposed by residents during its naming campaign for the future fourth Macau-Taipa bridge, the construction of which is now scheduled to be completed in the next quarter.
A statement by the Public Works Bureau (DSOP) yesterday announced that the government “has decided to officially name” the fourth Macau-Taipa bridge “Macau Bridge” after “referencing” the five names shortlisted by a selection committee.
The five names shortlisted last month were: Macau Bridge, New City Bridge, Sea Mirror Bridge, Silver Jubilee Bridge, and Hou Kong Bridge.
While the bureau only announced the Chinese version of the five names last month, yesterday’s DSOP statement mentioned the five names in both Chinese and Portuguese, Macau’s two official languages.
The Public Works Bureau is the public entity organising bridge’s naming campaign.
The Cantonese name of Sea Mirror Bridge (“Ponte Espelho do Mar” in Portuguese) is Kiang Hoi Bridge. In English, “Kiang” and “Hoi” are literally translated as “mirror” and “sea” respectively.
“Hou Kong” is literally translated as “Oyster River”.
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., its silver jubilee.
The Macau Special Administrative Region (MSAR) was established on December 20, 1999.
“New City” refers to the city’s new urban areas. 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 has yet any 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.
Yesterday’s DSOP statement did not explain why the government has decided to choose “Macau Bridge” as the fourth Macau-Taipa bridge’s official name.
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.
A total of 5,703 residents, or 0.8 percent of the population, submitted their proposed names during the naming campaign’s submission period. The 5,703 proponents submitted about 14,400 identical or different names.
The selection committee that had shortlisted the five names comprised 19 members chosen from the government, consisting of community association representatives as well as professionals primarily from the city’s cultural sector.
Yesterday’s DSOP statement noted that the selection committee had first chosen 37 different names from the submitted names, before it held a meeting last month where its members shortlisted five names: Macau Bridge, New City Bridge, Sea Mirror Bridge, Silver Jubilee Bridge, and Hou Kong Bridge.
Lucky draw
The bureau carried out a lucky draw yesterday afternoon that covered all those who proposed the name chosen by the government, i.e., Macau Bridge. The lucky draw chose the winner, the first runner-up, and the second runner-up, who will respectively receive a cash prize of 10,000 patacas plus a souvenir, 8,000 patacas plus a souvenir, and 6,000 patacas plus a souvenir.
In addition to the winner and the first and second runners-up, yesterday afternoon’s lucky draw also chose 50 others who proposed the name chosen by the government. Each of them will receive a souvenir.
According to yesterday’s DSOP statement, Secretary for Transport and Public Works Raimundo do Rosário will present the awards to the winners at the Lotus Room on the fifth floor of the World Trade Centre Macau in Zape on April 14.
The bureau announced the winners’ name list in a separate statement yesterday evening.
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 were again two of five shortlisted names this time.
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.
The bridge was fully connected about a fortnight ago, meaning that the project has entered the stage of setting up the bridge’s various auxiliary structures.
This handout photo taken and released by the Public Works Bureau (DSOP) on March 13 shows the fourth Macau-Taipa bridge’s southern main span that was joined to its main structure the previous night.
