[8] The HZMB spans the Lingding and Jiuzhou channels, connecting Hong Kong and Macau with Zhuhai—a major city on the Pearl River Delta in China.

[9] Originally set to be opened to traffic in late 2016,[10][11][12] the structure was completed on 6 February 2018[1] and journalists were subsequently taken for a ride over the bridge.

Hopewell Holdings founder and then-managing director Gordon Wu proposed the concept of a bridge-tunnel linking Mainland China, British Hong Kong and Portuguese Macau in the 1980s.

[16] Discussions stalled after the Tiananmen Square protests in mid-1989 "unnerved" Wu and other foreign investors, and caused Hopewell's Hong Kong share prices to plunge.

Officials from three sides solved issues such as landing points and alignments of the bridge, operation of the Border Crossing Facilities, and project financing.

[23] In March 2009, it was further reported that China's central government, Hong Kong and Macau agreed to finance 22 percent of the total costs.

[24] Construction of the HZMB project began on 15 December 2009 on the Chinese side,[25] with the Politburo Standing member and Vice Premier of China Li Keqiang holding a commencement ceremony.

Construction of the Hong Kong section of the project began in December 2011 after a delay caused by a legal challenge regarding the environmental impact of the bridge.

[32][33] The Main Bridge, the largest part of the HZMB project, is a bridge-tunnel system constructed by the mainland Chinese authorities.

[42][43] Opened in October 2024, the 3-kilometre-long (1.9 mi) bridge provided alternative access to Taipa Island from the HZMB boundary office.

[49] In addition, all overnight airport buses (NA-prefixed routes) which are operated by Cityflyer or Long Win stops or terminates at the Hong Kong Port.

[51] Since the Hong Kong government imposes significant fees, taxes and administrative paperwork on private vehicle ownership and usage to deal with road congestion,[52] driving a car on the HZMB would incur the same restrictions as current cross-border traffic.

[58][59] In 2023 the permit/quota system relaxed further, allowing more Hong Kong and Macau vehicles to enter Guangdong Province via the Northbound Travel scheme.

[66] The artificial island housing the Hong Kong Boundary Crossing Facilities (HKBCF) was reported drifting due to an unconventional method, hitherto unused in Hong Kong, for land reclamation using a row of circular steel cells pile-driven into the mud and filled with inert material to form a seawall.

[71] Mainland contractors also reportedly had difficulty constructing immersed tubes for their section of the project, with the director of the Guangdong National Development and Reform Commission stating that 2020 would be a difficult target to meet.

[75] In 2017, Hong Kong's Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) arrested 21 employees (2 senior executives, 14 laboratory technicians, and 5 laboratory assistants) of Jacobs China Limited, a contractor of the Civil Engineering and Development Department for falsifying concrete test results, thus potentially risking the safety of the bridge for public use.

[77] In April 2018, the public and media raised questions over the integrity of the seawalls protecting the artificial islands at both ends of the undersea tunnel.

[82] Conservationists at WWF Hong Kong blamed the construction of the HZMB for the falling number of white dolphins in the waters near the bridge.