A steel box girder for the first span of Hong Kong – Zhuhai – Macao Bridge was successfully installed in the deep water area by CCCC – First Harbor Engineering Co., Ltd. (CCCC-FHEC) on January 19, 2014. The installation of the steel box girder for the first span of Hong Kong – Zhuhai – Macao Bridge was a phased breakthrough in the construction of Hong Kong – Zhuhai – Macao Bridge and also an important step forward in handling and installation of very long and large members for construction of bridges in open seas in China.

The works under Contract Package CB03 for Hong Kong – Zhuhai – Macao Bridge, being executed by CCCC-FHEC, will be 8670 m long and a total of 68 steel box girders will be installed with sizes of 132.6 m, 110 m and 86.6 m separately. The heaviest steel box girder will weigh 3300 t. The steel box girder for the first span of the bridge was132.6 m long and 33.1 m wide, weighing 2815 t.

At 9:56 am, the giant steel box girder was lifted up with the 4000-t floating crane, Floating Crane Yihang Jintai, and moved away from the carrier ship after intensive readjustment and monitoring of the lifting points and slings by the technical personnel. The box girder was stably rested on the pier heads of Pier No.21 and Pier No.22 after three hours of position readjusting of the box girder in the air. Finally, the steel box girder was accurately installed within the allowable deviation of 5 mm.

Hong Kong – Zhuhai – Macao Bridge will be the first offshore bridge with its superstructure extensively built of steel box girdersin China. The total volume of steel to be used will be more than 400,000 tons, which is sufficient to build about 60 steel towels like the Eiffel Tower. During the fabrication of the steel box girders, CCCC-FHEC overcame the two major issues of linear control and accurate positioning and readjustment of large steel box girders and eventually successfully erected and installed the steel box girder for the first span of Hong Kong – Zhuhai – Macao Bridge ().