With a length of 6.8 km and a width of 46 meters, the two-way eight-lane tunnel will be the largest and widest in the world. More than 320,000 metric tons of steel is required for its construction.

It has been the major transportation construction project under the country's 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20) and will help further develop the Pearl River Delta region.

The plan to build a roadway across the Pearl River dates back to 2002, when the Guangdong government started research on building a cross-river channel between Shenzhen and Zhuhai in Guangdong.