>>1836275The western side used to be a harbor which they've been building into a residential area for the past decade. The eastern side also used to have an oil harbor but it's similarly being built into a new residential area, and then there's an old suburb further in on the island
Currently you have to take a bus to the subway to get into the city, which creates this unnecessary loop around the bay and an extra switch between the bus and the train. The bridges essentially cut the travel distance and time in half so it just makes good sense I think. Plus they're building another new route toward the north, which will also connect to the eastern area, so it just generally improves connections. Took them long enough to actually start building this though, the winning bridge design was chosen in like 2013 but they only started building them this year
