Bridging the gap

[whole diary]

[grahame]

http://metro.co.uk/2018/01/24/bridge-built-scotland-northern-ireland-7255433/

A new bridge linking Scotland and Northern Ireland could see the two islands getting much closer. The 25-mile link is being called for by politicians across the Irish Sea – who estimate it would cost £20billion. 

Leading figures in the Democratic Union Party have revived calls for a bridge or tunnel between Larne in County Antrim and Dumfries and Galloway. The estimated cost of the project would make it among the biggest infrastructure projects in UK^▸ (United Kingdom) history – and is a fair bit more than the £1billion the party was promised by Theresa May as part of the deal to give the Tories the majority of seats in Parliament at last year’s snap election.

The link was proposed by Sammy Wilson, a senior DUP MP^▸ (Member of Parliament), and Simon Hamilton, a former minister for the party in the Stormont administration, who is touted as a future leader.

Not the narrowest point ... it's only about 14 miles from the Antrim coast near Ballycastle to Kintyre for Cambeltown ...

[Bmblbzzz]

I can't help feeling this is an "us too" response to the Johnson-Macron "plan" of a bridge across the Channel.

[stuving]

http://metro.co.uk/2018/01/24/bridge-built-scotland-northern-ireland-7255433/

A new bridge linking Scotland and Northern Ireland could see the two islands getting much closer. The 25-mile link is being called for by politicians across the Irish Sea – who estimate it would cost £20billion. 

Leading figures in the Democratic Union Party have revived calls for a bridge or tunnel between Larne in County Antrim and Dumfries and Galloway. The estimated cost of the project would make it among the biggest infrastructure projects in UK^▸ (United Kingdom) history – and is a fair bit more than the £1billion the party was promised by Theresa May as part of the deal to give the Tories the majority of seats in Parliament at last year’s snap election.

The link was proposed by Sammy Wilson, a senior DUP MP^▸ (Member of Parliament), and Simon Hamilton, a former minister for the party in the Stormont administration, who is touted as a future leader.

Not the narrowest point ... it's only about 14 miles from the Antrim coast near Ballycastle to Kintyre for Cambeltown ...

The argument put up against Kintyre was that it's a long way round to get to it. However, even if you add two or three extra bridges to give a pretty direct route to Glasgow and the main population centres, it's still going to need less length of bridge than the Larne option.

But you have to factor in a degree of tongue-in-cheekness - it was, after all, triggered by Boris's cunning plan.

[Oxonhutch]

Also, don't forget the hydrographic feature in the North Channel of the Beaufort's Dyke: a sub-sea trench some 200-300 m deep - a serious challenge to a tunnel, let alone a bridge.  Oh, and it is thought to contain over a million tons of dumped munitions and poison gas.

[grahame]

Also, don't forget the hydrographic feature in the North Channel of the Beaufort's Dyke: a sub-sea trench some 200-300 m deep - a serious challenge to a tunnel, let alone a bridge.  Oh, and it is thought to contain over a million tons of dumped munitions and poison gas.

Perhaps a Floating Bridge or a Pontoon Bridge then?

[Surrey 455]

Not the narrowest point ... it's only about 14 miles from the Antrim coast near Ballycastle to Kintyre for Cambeltown ...

I hadn't realised the two countries were that close! I've found a 12.5 mile gap in the same area though there do not seem to be any roads near either end so they would probably need to build just as many miles of new roads as well to connect to the existing ones.

[broadgage]

Just what we need, a road bridge and new roads, probably motorways to link it to existing routes.
Pollution ? traffic congestion? oil depletion? more congestion elsewhere as people drive to new link, and of course more lives lost in road accidents.

I would support a rail bridge, but not a road bridge.

[Bmblbzzz]

How about a bridge from Jersey to France?

If you’ve been keeping up with the latest shenanigans from what we must currently call the British government, you might have heard that Boris Johnson would like a bridge to France.

Ignoring his desire to pull the country as far away from the European continent as he can in every sense except geography (at least, for now), this isn’t the first time somebody has proposed that the Isles be linked to France by sea. About a decade ago, the Channel Island of Jersey (New Jersey’s estranged parent) saw the prospect of a fixed-link between the European mainland and a British island to be a real possibility.

The scheme originally arose as a proposal from the former president of the island’s Chamber of Commerce, Peter Walsh. A 16-mile bridge would have linked the island with northern Normandy, most likely ending at one of two Normandy communes; Blainville-sur-Mer or Granville. Walsh even went so far as to write to then-French President Nicolas Sarkozy, with the Élysée Palace writing back with positive thoughts on the matter. 

The Danish-Swedish Øresund Bridge takes much of the credit in terms of inspiration. Opened in 2000, it connects the Danish Capital of Copenhagen with the Swedish city of Malmö, the latter of which has since undergone significant growth. With Øresund as a template, its backers envisaged that the bridge would be able to function as an offshore energy farm that would generate power from both wind and tide. In total, it was estimated that the bridge would coast around £1bn (just under £1.2bn today).

This in turn prompted meetings between Jersey’s environment minister and representatives from Sund & Bælt, the company responsible for the construction of the Øresund. Further assessments were set to be conducted later. Two solutions were considered: either a tunnel link, or a full-on bridge.

And after that? Nothing. The project never got off the ground. No real effort has been made since 2009, thanks to the global economic crisis and a financial black hole, alongside general skepticism from most of the island. To inflict further damage, one of the plan’s most notable proponents, the then-assistant minister for planning Robert Duhamel, lost his seat in the 2014 elections, thus muting any chance for it in Jersey’s States Assembly (its equivalent of the UK^▸ (United Kingdom) Parliament).

It’s doubtful that the bridge would have been able to replicate the economic benefits that the Øresund Bridge has brought to Denmark and Sweden. Whilst Jersey is an offshore financial centre, and carries with it a hefty GDP per capita, a connection to a town such as Granville would be unlikely to merit a great deal of economic benefits. Granville’s economy is primarily based around its port and fishing, whilst Jersey is far more services-driven: as an autonomous jurisdiction that allows it to avoid the fiscal regulations in place in the UK and France, the island specialises in financial and legal services and offshore banking. Its only real exports are cows, potatoes and Superman.

But a bridge might have helped relieve the island’s population pressure. With around 100,000 people spread out over 35 square miles, Jersey is the fifteenth most densely-populated region in the world, and that density looks likely to grow. The bridge would have created closer links between the Jersey and French populations, thereby providing a greater range of options to those working in the island – and potentially dilute the astronomically high house prices.

The energy production elements of the plan would have been plausible, too. Reports published by the States of Jersey from that period demonstrate a strong potential for harnessing tidal power, whilst wind power has long been an idea pursued, but never realised, in the region.

So what does a decade-old concept have to do with Boris Johnson, aside from serve as a bit of niche history? Simple: it’s the Customs Union, stupid. Whilst the Channel Islands are not themselves members of the European Union or the Single Market, they are part of the Customs Union. Their membership hinges entirely on Protocol 3 in Article 355(c) of the UK’s 1972 ascension treaty.

Unlike Gibraltar, the Crown Dependencies – the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man – were never afforded a vote on Brexit in the first place. Nor has there been a great deal of debate on their futures. The only substantial discussion of their future was a House of Lords Report from March last year, highlighting the need for them to be recognised in the negotiations. Since then, it’s been radio silence from Westminster.

It’s now been ten months since Article 50 was triggered, and the Dependencies are still effectively in the dark about the consequences of the 2016 Referendum.

For these and many other reasons, it seems that Jersey’s Bridge is unlikely to happen. But this is also something it has in common with Boris Johnson’s Garden Bridge. Or his Channel Bridge. Or his ambitions to become Prime Minister.

https://www.citymetric.com/fabric/government-jersey-once-tried-build-its-own-bridge-france-3629

[Noggin]

Doesn't seem unreasonable, interest rates are low and loads of capital sloshing round the global economy at the moment.

The way to do it properly would be to build a combined road/rail link like Øresund, plus a motorway/high-speed rail triangle between Carslisle, Glasgow and Portpatrick, with connections to Edinburgh, Preston, Belfast and thence to Dublin (and Cork if the Irish can afford it).

With new HR^▸ (Human Resources) rail links, at a rough guess you end up with Glasgow to Belfast in an hour, Manchester to Belfast in something like 2h (about 400km against 320km for Manchester to London), London to Belfast in under 4h. Dublin is another 190km from Belfast so relatively easy to do in less than an hour.

That will beat flying for the majority of travellers, but more importantly it will be reliable and weather-proof enough for day trips, commuters, companies with tight supply chains etc. It would greatly reduce freight costs for Irish companies that import and export, providing them with rail connections to UK^▸ (United Kingdom) ports, the Continent and all the way to China.

So borrow £50bn on the world markets with a 100 year bond and just build it. Much of the construction expenditure will come back to the Exchequer anyway through VAT^▸ (Value Added Tax), Income Tax, Corporation Tax etc, not to mention the economic boost when it opens. Sure, the BCR^▸ (Benefit Cost Ratio) is probably greater for Crossrail 2, but as a grand political gesture to tie Eire, N.Ireland, Scotland and the north of England together it seems like a pretty good idea.

[simonw]

And why not build a tunnel from Liverpool, to Holyhead, to Dublin as well.

Tie this into HS2^▸ (The next High Speed line(s)), and London to Dublin would be doable in about 2 hours, with Liverpool, Manchester and Leeds in theory less than an hour apart, assuming HS3 happens.



 

[froome]

I can't help feeling this is an "us too" response to the Johnson-Macron "plan" of a bridge across the Channel.

And just as stupid.

[Bmblbzzz]

Now there are plans for a combined road-rail bridge across the Severn on or near to the alignment of the old Sharpness bridge.
https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/plans-third-severn-bridge-unveiled-1153621

Plans for a third Severn bridge have been unveiled for a spot on the estuary north of Bristol.

A partnership of public sector organisations and business chiefs have suggested the idea for a multi-use bridge, which would potentially include both road and rail. The aspiration is that it would be built by the year 2050.

It was named as one of ‘six big ideas’ by the Gloucestershire 2050 organisation, alongside creating a ‘super city’ out of Gloucester and Cheltenham.

The third Severn Bridge would connect the two towns of Sharpness, near Thornbury, and Lydney in the Forest of Dean on the western side of the river.

It would replace a rail bridge that connected the Forest of Dean with the eastern side of the Severn until the 1960s, when a disaster left it unusable and it was demolished. Two tanker barges carrying oil and petrol hit one of the columns of the old Severn railway bridge on the night of October 25, 1960, causing an explosion and fire. Five people were killed in the accident.

The vision is for the new bridge to link the Forest of Dean to the M5 just north of junction 14 for Thornbury, making connection between Bristol and the Forest much easier than it is at present.

Those behind the idea think it could provide a major economic boost to the Forest of Dean, which is already seeing rising house prices because of an exodus from expensive Bristol and the prospect of zero tolls on the present two Severn bridges making commuting to Bristol much more attractive.

“A new crossing would provide a vital connection between districts and access to the Forest; thereby addressing employment and economic regeneration, education and skills development, housing need and retention of young people,” said a spokesperson for Gloucestershire 2050.

“The new crossing would be designed to be multi-purpose, to provide for multiple transport methods, and potentially provide a leisure facility with walking and cycling trails into the Severn Vale and Forest of Dean Regional Parks. Connection to the M5 would also be logical, transforming the quality of road access to the Forest of Dean.”

[Surrey 455]

Now there are plans for a combined road-rail bridge across the Severn on or near to the alignment of the old Sharpness bridge.
https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/plans-third-severn-bridge-unveiled-1153621

Plans for a third Severn bridge have been unveiled for a spot on the estuary north of Bristol.

A partnership of public sector organisations and business chiefs have suggested the idea for a multi-use bridge, which would potentially include both road and rail. The aspiration is that it would be built by the year 2050.

It was named as one of ‘six big ideas’ by the Gloucestershire 2050 organisation, alongside creating a ‘super city’ out of Gloucester and Cheltenham.

The third Severn Bridge would connect the two towns of Sharpness, near Thornbury, and Lydney in the Forest of Dean on the western side of the river.

It would replace a rail bridge that connected the Forest of Dean with the eastern side of the Severn until the 1960s, when a disaster left it unusable and it was demolished. Two tanker barges carrying oil and petrol hit one of the columns of the old Severn railway bridge on the night of October 25, 1960, causing an explosion and fire. Five people were killed in the accident.

The vision is for the new bridge to link the Forest of Dean to the M5 just north of junction 14 for Thornbury, making connection between Bristol and the Forest much easier than it is at present.

Those behind the idea think it could provide a major economic boost to the Forest of Dean, which is already seeing rising house prices because of an exodus from expensive Bristol and the prospect of zero tolls on the present two Severn bridges making commuting to Bristol much more attractive.

“A new crossing would provide a vital connection between districts and access to the Forest; thereby addressing employment and economic regeneration, education and skills development, housing need and retention of young people,” said a spokesperson for Gloucestershire 2050.

“The new crossing would be designed to be multi-purpose, to provide for multiple transport methods, and potentially provide a leisure facility with walking and cycling trails into the Severn Vale and Forest of Dean Regional Parks. Connection to the M5 would also be logical, transforming the quality of road access to the Forest of Dean.”

Ahh, I can see how Boris might be attracted to this one. There's mention of a forest. Just need a few pot plants on the bridge, maybe some hanging baskets as well and he can have his new garden bridge.