Construction of a cross-platform interchange connecting the current Lotus Station on the Light Rail Transit (LRT) Taipa-Cotai section and its adjacent station on the soon-to-open LRT Cotai-Hengqin section has been completed, the Public Works Bureau (DSOP) announced on its website yesterday.
The 2.2-kilometre-long Cotai-Hengqin section’s construction was “basically” completed earlier this year, after which train operation tests on the line started.
According to the DSOP website, the Cotai-Hengqin section project is scheduled to be fully completed in November this year. The government is aiming to open the section before the end of this year.
The Cotai-side station of the two-station Cotai-Hengqin section is tentatively known as HE1, while the station on the other side, located under the Hengqin checkpoint, is tentatively known as HE2.
The newly completed cross-platform interchange will enable LRT passengers to change trains between the Taipa-Cotai and Cotai-Hengqin sections through an indoor corridor on the same level.
The cross-platform interchange is part of the podium of a future office building, to be located between the current Lotus Station and the soon-to-open HE1 station.
The office building project is being carried out through three separate tenders – a tender for its pile foundation, a tender for its basement and podium, and a tender for its superstructure. The project’s foundation work got off the ground in October 2022 and was completed in September last year. The government is yet to launch a tender for the high-rise’s basement and podium work.
The high-rise, aka Lotus Multifunctional Building, will be primarily earmarked for office spaces and other commercial facilities.
The DSOP website notes that the Lotus Multifunctional Building project is being carried out in phases, the foundation work of which first got off the ground in October 2022.
The website notes that with the LRT Cotai-Hengqin section slated to come into service in 2024, the government launched a project to build a cross-platform interchange between the current Taipa-Cotai section and the future Cotai-Hengqin section, which got off the ground in June last year. The website announced yesterday that the cross-platform interchange project has now been completed.
Construction of the LRT Cotai-Hengqin section has a price tag of about 3.5 billion patacas.
The cross-platform interchange project was carried out with a price tag of 125 million patacas.
These two handout photos released and taken by the Public Works Bureau (DSOP) yesterday shows the newly completed LRT cross-platform interchange’s corridor (left) and its location entering the Hengqin section’s HE1 station.
