A Bridge too far? Scotland - Ireland Bridge proposals

[233]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-51443191



well it looks like its certainly at the assesment stage within the corridors of power,

will certainly be interesting to see what proposals they come up with, if any and the estimated costs that get banded around in the early stages.


Can the UK support another major infrastructure project like this especially with HS2 being given the green light?

the 2 proposals i've seen so far are

Torr Head to Mull of Kintyre, - not a chance imo as the infrastructure is shockingly poor and any savings would be gobbled up with the majorly prohibitive costs of building at least a dual carriageway out that way, That said would no doubt alleviate another major problem in that part of the world the constant landslides as the Rest and be thankful

the sensible option seems to be a link from Larne to Portpatrick which would tie in nicely with connections to both the A77 and A75

Although would still require a solid 60 miles of Dual carriageway to be constructed to the north along with upgrades to the existing dualled section of the A77 and i'd imagine some serious changes to the Kingston bridge and top of the M77/M8 Junction as part of an overall project with any increases in traffic volume


Heading east you would be looking at another 100 miles of work to upgrade the A75 to provide a decent dualled connection to the M74/M6 to fully utilise any new link

on the Larne side i'd imagine a straight conection onto the A8/M2 so on that side at least the approach work would be minimal


or if Boris wants to pee off Scotland how about a bridge from Dublin to Holyhead just to play devils advocate,

other option would be a tunnel for any of the above Larne to Portpatrick would actually be shorter than the Channel Tunnel............

 

[Sankari]

This is spectacularly stupid. Are the Tories just coming up with lunatic policies for fun now?

 

[233]

actually makes more sense than HS2 as a project and with the initial costing of £20 billion a lot more bang for buck


still think tunnelling would be a far better option for something like this though

 

[dholdi]

Is Far in Scotland or Ireland ?

 

[Dis86]

This is spectacularly stupid. Are the Tories just coming up with lunatic policies for fun now?

Gotta keep pace with Trump.

 

[233]

Is Far in Scotland or Ireland ?

take your pick although depends on the SNP might end up Ireland to England

Gotta keep pace with Trump.

big project 3 from Boris - rebuild hadrians wall

 

[Malevolence]

Right over Beaufort's dyke, what could possibly go wrong with this?

 

[Hagar]

actually makes more sense than HS2 as a project and with the initial costing of £20 billion a lot more bang for buck


still think tunnelling would be a far better option for something like this though

A central tunnel section (or two parallel if road and rail are being considered). With bridges connecting islands to the land at each end of the tunnel sections. Tunnelling safely would require that the tunnellers could escape along the tunnel to a suitable egress point in a fairly short time. 10 to 15 miles is a long distance in conditions such as fire. Escape vehicles are not likely to be fast, maybe 20mph. The task is not insurmountable and lots of designs will be assessed and discarded. I kind of wish that I was not retired to work on a project such as this.

I kind of expect that a sub sea tunnel for cars and trucks would be considered too risky unless vehicles are controlled autonomously.

 

[The_Abyss]

This is spectacularly stupid. Are the Tories just coming up with lunatic policies for fun now?

I endorse this comment.

 

[RxR]

There is plenty of cheap money kicking its heels in the market atm, so it is hardly a bad financing time for it.

 

[koolpc]

UK to USA is next for a bridge!

 

[cheesyboy]

Gotta move that Overton Window.... Makes HS2 seem that bit less stupid, you see.

That's all this is about. It's not like both NI and Scotland are likely to still GE part of UK by the time this would be finished anyway.

 

[adolf hamster]

Its a tricky one, i dont necessarily think it's a bad idea (but then i dont work for p&o), and the larne-portpatrick route would seem the most logical.

However the real question is what else could be bought for that kind of money? Tbh that kind of cash simply invested in improving the overall quality of the road network nationwide would be arguably just as valuable.

 

[The_Abyss]

Its a tricky one, i dont necessarily think it's a bad idea (but then i dont work for p&o), and the larne-portpatrick route would seem the most logical.

However the real question is what else could be bought for that kind of money? Tbh that kind of cash simply invested in improving the overall quality of the road network nationwide would be arguably just as valuable.

I think that the point being made earlier is that without the other improvements being made to the network, then this kind of infrastructure investment is pointless. No point bridging the two nations from a village in Northern Ireland to a diary farm in Scotland.

 

[RxR]

It's not like both NI and Scotland are likely to still GE part of UK by the time this would be finished anyway.

Do you really think so?

 

[StriderX]

Do you really think so?

Well this bridge is a dead cat, and will never be finished because it'll never start in the first place, so yes.

 

[adolf hamster]

I think that the point being made earlier is that without the other improvements being made to the network, then this kind of infrastructure investment is pointless. No point bridging the two nations from a village in Northern Ireland to a diary farm in Scotland.

I was simply thinking of repairing all the goddamn potholes around the place tbh.

 

[Minusorange]

still think tunnelling would be a far better option for something like this though

With the weather becoming more & more erratic it makes zero sense to build a bridge, it will probably be closed for half a year due to storms

 

[The_Abyss]

I was simply thinking of repairing all the goddamn potholes around the place tbh.

I'd like to think that repairs are BAU - this bridge should be judged under 'investment'.

Boris must just like to build on the sea. He wanted the '5th runway' to be built in the Thames estuary after all.

 

[RxR]

I was thinking a decision to build it might be good on the grounds of stimulating the economy by creating jobs /work. That justification is used frequently in Australia (including for several major projects and infrastructure upgrades underway right now) - ie. bringing forward public infrastructure spending to maintain momentum.