Mindboggling Bridge Would Flip Traffic Lanes

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NL Architects’ proposal for a bridge that would connect Hong Kong with the Chinese mainland looks like something out of an M.C. Escher sketch.

Known as the Pearl River Necklace Bridge — an almost-unfortunate combination of words — the bizarre design is intended to solve a unique problem: People drive on the left side of the road in Hong Kong but on the right side in the mainland. This would obviously create havoc if you send cars to the other side and then just have drivers figure it out. At best, there would be a bottleneck at either end, as drivers would have to wait to switch over.

The bridge uses a “road flipping” design that twists the lanes of traffic over one another, leading right-lane drivers to the left when they reach Hong Kong and left-lane drivers to the right when they head into the Chinese mainland.

It’s an ingenious solution to a tough technical problem, though if college students start hanging posters of this bridge in their dorm rooms en masse, we’ll blame China.

Check out the reverse angle after the jump.

Is This the Craziest Bridge Ever Designed? (Gizmodo)

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