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Bridge across the Irish Sea?


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2 hours ago, Lairdyfaeinverclyde said:

N Just hearing that the DUP leader has suggested that she want's a bridge built between Northern Ireland and Scotland. The speech was made at the Orange walk she attended in Fife. Not sure that idea would be welcomed, by most Scottish people, by the leader of a party that keeps the Tory government in power.

I am sure £1 bn will cover it. 

2 hours ago, DoonTheSlope said:

Would be a great idea but surely the cost makes it a no goer

Thats even worse than half of mine.........

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It's an idea that makes a load of sense from the Irish perspective as the bridge would be pretty close to major population centres. On the Scottish side, it makes pretty much no sense and you'd have to build about 100 miles of dual carriageway of motorway to make it useful.

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On Sunday, July 01, 2018 at 8:20 AM, aaid said:

It's an idea that makes a load of sense from the Irish perspective as the bridge would be pretty close to major population centres. On the Scottish side, it makes pretty much no sense and you'd have to build about 100 miles of dual carriageway of motorway to make it useful.

Although given that the bridge would become the main road haulage link between Great Britain and Ireland, any investment in road links would be worthwhile. A perfect opportunity for EU funding, oh hang on...

 

 

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Actually would love a major civil engineering project like this (plus nice motorway for south ayrshire and one across galloway.

Channel is a lot deeper than dover strait though so very difficult to do.

How much for a tunnel?

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1 hour ago, buckielugger said:

Channel is a lot deeper than dover strait though so very difficult to do.

How much for a tunnel?

No idea about the cost but as you mentioned the tunnel would need to be about 4 times deeper than the Channel Tunnel.

It would beat this as the deepest in the world (and also be a good bit longer than the Norwegian one)...

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eiksund_Tunnel

 

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So maybe go Wigtown coast to IOM then a 2nd one over to somewhere in Ireland and dodge the deep bits 😃

 

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  • 1 year later...
14 minutes ago, Fish Supper said:

You also have several thousand tons of unused munitions dumped between Scotland and Ireland to contend with.

Yeah. Think the last paragraph says it all .

 

‘ Shadow environment secretary Luke Pollard accused the PM of being a ‘master of distraction’ and said: ‘every moment spent talking about a bridge no one wants, is airtime not spent focusing on the crises right in front of us’.

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52 minutes ago, Fish Supper said:

You also have several thousand tons of unused munitions dumped between Scotland and Ireland to contend with.

More like a million tons of munitions in the Beaufort Dyke . Wouldn't be at all surprised if there wasn't stuff from Sellafield down there as well. 

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Interesting / shocking reading about Beaufort Dyke...

Quote

 

Undersea Arsenal, Poisoned Oceans is a 9-part series on the history and consequences of decommissioned unconventional munitions disposed at sea.

munitions dumpUndersea Arsenal, Poisoned Oceans Part 5: Beaufort Dyke and the Missing Munitions discusses one of the worst instances of oceanic dumping and the ongoing threat they pose.

Beaufort Dyke, a sea trench between Scotland and North Ireland represents everything that is dangerous and wrong with oceanic dumping. Since 1990, more than 5,000 incendiary munitions have washed up on shore, posing a danger to beach-goers and coastal residents. Some of these devices have ignited, others emitted toxic fumes. In 1995 alone, some 4,000 phosphorous bombs were discovered washed up on Scotland’s west coast. Their most recent victims included a four-year-old boy, who was burned on the arms and leg when a bomb ignited in his hands.

Modern-days surveys reveal a portion of the disposed-of munition were dumped less than three miles from shore, in waters less than 150 feet. Left to become increasingly unstable and reactive over time, suspicious underwater explosions have been continuously recorded since the fall of 1966. A 1995 investigation of Beaufort Dyke revealed at least eight unexplained craters in the area, likely just a glimpse into the true toll. A 40-year Explosives Ordnance Disposal veteran estimated the depths of Beaufort Dyke erupt upwards of 2-3 times per month, and have been doing so for decades. The British Geological Survey confirms this using equipment tuned for earthquakes and other large-scale geological events, finding at least 47 seismic “events” in the area during the period of 1992 to 2004 alone. These so-called “events” are almost unquestionably accidental deep-water detonations. Ships are advised to steer well clear of the dumpsite, as the kinetic shock bubble of just one of these explosions could potentially crush a ship’s hull.

Even if we knew where these munitions were originally dumped, we do not know where they are now. The natural motions of oceanic currents are capable of moving bioforms and man-made jettison alike. As cooling and warming areas of the ocean displace each other, vast oceanic rivers of moving seawater are formed, some of which move at upwards of three miles per hour.

Despite the power of this natural phenomena, manmade disturbances are far more significant. Beyond the usual suspects of fossil fuel exploration and cable dredging operations, deep sea commercial fishing is by far the most concerning.

Powerful fishing vessels, some measuring hundreds of feet long with massive, 2000 horsepower diesel engines, are capable of lowering their bottom nets up to 6,000 feet below the surface. Steel cables hold these nets in place as the bottom edge of the net, sunk by massive steel weights, bounce across the ocean floor destroying anything in the way. Conservationists liken the practice to using a helicopter with nets to catch cows—you’ll get the cows, but you might also catch trees, deer, fences, maybe even a barn or two. While munitions encased in shipwrecks are relatively immune, anything loose can be scooped up, even objects weighing thousands of pounds.

Heavily fished areas—such as the English Channel—now resemble the base of a construction site, practically scraped clean. Anything in the path of these giant nets is picked up, dragged along or moved aside, chemical munitions included. Dumped armaments are caught and caught again, sometimes brought to the surface, sometimes simply moved to a new site further away from the original dumping zone, making keeping tabs on these devices exponentially more difficult.

https://expeditionwriter.com/undersea-arsenal-poisoned-oceans-part-5-beaufort-dyke-and-the-missing-munitions/

 

Great... nice one lads.

 

 

 

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Alex Cole Hamilton would have a field day with the number of days it would be closed

(That's if it wasnt complete horseshit and another deflection)

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