Scotland-Ireland bridge

Why is it a decent idea?

Seems like a reasonably decent idea, but given Johnson's track records on extreme projects, like the garden bridge and Estuary airport...and also coincidental given that today it was revealed Sinn Fein had the largest share of votes in the Irish general election.

Why is it a decent idea? Who would use it?

From a technical standpoint, you could argue that it'd be worth seeing if it's possible, but the money would be better spent on more ferries from more ports rather than one super expensive and vulnerable bottleneck.

Apparently because Boris Johnson likes bridges.

However, given Conservatives outstanding record of delivering large scale infrastructure projects like HS2 that are clearly advantageous to the economy and well within budget, I can think of no downsides.

From a technical standpoint it's very possible. The bridge would only have to be around 30 miles in length and there are longer bridges out there. Probably the best design to use might be the floating one in Newfoundland given that connecting to the seabed would require a depth of 300m.

Isn't the sea a little rough for that there? What about all the nuclear waste, chemical weapons and bombs?

That stuffs all on the bottom and rough seas/ice flows are what the floating design in Newfoundland is for.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_R._Bennett_Bridge

Our bridge but would need to be about 45 times longer but same principals.

As a firm unionist i would like to see such a link however the ultimate question is what the cost is and whether they will use their brain and propose a duel bridge so they can chuck a rail line on it.

From a technical standpoint it's very possible. The bridge would only have to be around 30 miles in length and there are longer bridges out there. Probably the best design to use might be the floating one in Newfoundland given that connecting to the seabed would require a depth of 300m.

Probably not the case. We know for example that when the Chunnel opened a large amount of traffic transferred from the plane to the train despite the fact that even now you can probably travel from London to Paris cheaper by air. Belfast and Dublin both have a fair amount of traffic moving to the UK by sea and air be that freight or passengers.

Unfortunately the problem here is in the Civil Service and associated quangos rather than government. Overblowing budgets has been British practise for decades.

Don't the pontoons need anchoring? That looks like a bridge over a lake, far more sheltered and not Newfoundland?

Don't the pontoons need anchoring? That looks like a bridge over a lake, far more sheltered and not Newfoundland?

Is a tunnel not easier? And yes, totally agree a rail link would be amazing.

Thing is is that many experts say that it could cost way more than £20bn given the location. And as many people have pointed out, it will be ironic if Scotland somehow manages to secede (maybe under a future government), and NI unites with Ireland, then we will have a bridge between two foreign countries that we paid for.

I still think a bridge to France is a good idea, it may even be easier than a bridge to Ireland.

Yeah to be fair I'm fooked if I'd drive over a 20-30 mile bridge crossing the Irish sea, it gets a little windy up there.

While it's true that we could one day see the union torn apart, you can hardly argue that we should simply give up in advance. Connecting NI to the union in particular (physically) means more people from the UK heading over there (diluting the separatists).

A tunnel would be much more expensive to construct and have to get 300m deep.

Given that the Dover Straight is the busiest shipping lane in the world i can all but guarantee that there will never be a bridge over the Channel.

I'm pretty sure you'd be driving in either a box or with significant walling.

While it's true that we could one day see the union torn apart, you can hardly argue that we should simply give up in advance. Connecting NI to the union in particular (physically) means more people from the UK heading over there (diluting the separatists).

A tunnel would be much more expensive to construct and have to get 300m deep.

Given that the Dover Straight is the busiest shipping lane in the world i can all but guarantee that there will never be a bridge over the Channel.

I'm pretty sure you'd be driving in either a box or with significant walling.

I believe the whole reason for this bridge is to preserve the union, certaintly not coincidental that these plans have resurfaced on the day that Sinn Fein has won the majority of votes in the Irish election.

They most certainly did not win the majority of the votes.

Let's be honest, it's going to happen given Boris seems to be a fan of enormous wastes of money, let's hope he realises that there is only so much other people's money sooner rather than later

My mistake - the largest share of the votes (24.5%). The other parties got less although put together the largest votes