Flipper bridge could sort out Hong Kong traffic switch

A Dutch architectural firm has proposed a bridge shaped like a figure '8' to switch the sides of the road driven on by cars traveling between Hong Kong and mainland China.

In Hong Kong – a former British colony – people drive on the left hand side of the road, as in the UK and Australia. In mainland China, however, people drive on the right hand side of the road, like in the United States.

To solve this infrastructural mess, Amsterdam-based NL Architects suggested a "Flipper" bridge concept wherein the halves of the roadway split and cross over and under each other. Such an arrangement would guide traffic seamlessly, and perhaps stylishly, into the correct flow during the border crossing.

"The Flipper is a device that is designed to 'celebrate' the traffic switch," according to an NL Architects statement. "Can we turn the moment of swapping into an unforgettable spectacle?"

This bridge was part of a proposal called the Pearl River Necklace submitted by the firm as part of the Hong Kong Boundary Crossing Facilities International Design Ideas Competition.

This contest was held to come up with an inspiring design for a transportation hub planned for construction on an artificial island. The complex will serve as an important junction point for both goods and people along the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge under construction near Hong Kong's airport in the Pearl River Delta.

This massive Bridge project, begun last December and slated for a 2016 completion, will link up the Chinese mainland city of Zhuhai with the western part of Hong Kong and another specially administered region called Macau, a former Portuguese colony