Airport Core Programme

Airport Core Programme
Tsing Ma Bridge, part of the Airport Core Programme
Traditional Chinese	香港機場核心計劃
Simplified Chinese	香港机场核心计划
Cantonese Yale	Hēung góng gēi chèuhng haht sām gai waahk
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Xiānggǎng Jīchǎng Héxīn Jìhuà Yue: Cantonese Yale Romanization Hēung góng gēi chèuhng haht sām gai waahk Jyutping Hoeng1 gong2 gei1 coeng4 hat6 sam1 gai3 waak6

The Airport Core Programme was a series of infrastructure projects centred on the new Hong Kong International Airport during the early 1990s. The programme was part of the Port and Airport Development Strategy, commonly known as the Rose Garden Project.

The cost for the whole project was estimated at over HK$200 billion, and the Chinese Government was concerned about its impact on the financial reserve of the future Hong Kong SAR Government. Several changes were made to the plan, including the shortening in distance of the two main towers of the Tsing Ma Bridge^[1] and the construction of the Airport Railway as a double-track railway. The project ended up costing HK$160.2 billion.^[2]

The Programme formally commenced after the signing of a memorandum of understanding between British Prime Minister John Major and Chinese Premier Li Peng in Beijing on 3 September 1991, and lasted eight years in total. It was the most expensive airport project in the world, according to the Guinness World Records. It was the biggest infrastructure programme in Hong Kong's history.