Southeast Asia Information Port News (www.dnyxxg.com) – February 2nd marked the official start of the 2026 Spring Festival travel rush, simultaneously launching a 40-day campaign to ensure smooth maritime traffic flow in the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge waters. As a core hub for personnel exchanges between Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macau, the 33 passenger routes along this waterway cater to both short-distance family visits and sightseeing, with an estimated 340,000 passenger trips expected during the Spring Festival travel period.
The Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge Maritime Safety Administration, adhering to the goals of "safety, convenience, and comfort" during the Spring Festival travel rush, has fully implemented a comprehensive, multi-dimensional regulatory and service model, taking multiple measures to strengthen the maritime safety barrier in the Greater Bay Area and ensure smooth travel for passengers.
In response to the prominent characteristics of the Spring Festival travel rush—overlapping passenger and voyage flows, frequent convergence of merchant and fishing vessels, and frequent severe weather—the maritime authorities implemented precise risk prevention and control measures. They identified nine key risks and seven prominent hidden dangers, developing a control list with "one plan for each risk, one measure for each hidden danger," focusing on strengthening prevention and control in core areas such as bridges and waterways. Before the Spring Festival travel rush, they completed a full-coverage inspection of passenger vessels within their jurisdiction, urged shipping companies to fulfill their primary responsibilities, and improved the severe weather early warning and response mechanism to prevent maritime safety risks at the source.
Smart supervision empowers efficient protection. The maritime authorities, relying on the smart maritime platform and integrating AIS, CCTV, and meteorological and sea condition monitoring data, monitor vessel dynamics and sea condition information in real time, conducting 24/7 precise monitoring and verification of vessel flow and navigation order in the bridge area. Simultaneously, they implemented a dual-track model of "on-site patrol + electronic patrol," deploying patrol vessels to key waterways and strictly implementing four-level upgraded control requirements (duty, patrol, investigation, etc.) to comprehensively safeguard navigation safety.
To cope with the challenges of severe weather, maritime and meteorological authorities have deepened their collaboration, jointly establishing the "Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge Waters Meteorological and Sea Condition Sentinel" platform with the Southern Ocean Laboratory. This platform enables hourly weather analysis, early issuance of severe weather warnings, the development of tiered traffic control plans, and strict implementation of the "stop all when necessary, evacuate all when necessary" requirement, minimizing the impact of weather on water travel.
"During the Spring Festival travel rush, we have pre-positioned four patrol vessels and over 30 emergency personnel, implementing a standby mode combining fixed-point duty and dynamic patrols," said Huang Yulong, Director of the Command Center of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge Maritime Bureau. He added that the department is also coordinating with professional rescue forces around the bridge to establish a rapid emergency response mechanism, ensuring a 5-minute response and 30-minute arrival and handling of emergencies.
The maritime authorities kindly remind passengers to check official platforms for real-time navigation and ticketing information when traveling by water, and to always use licensed vessels. In case of emergency, please call the maritime distress hotline 12395 for assistance. (End)
