Boris ditches Ulster bridge ... and wants a tunnel instead

BORIS Johnson is to step up plans to build a ‘Union tunnel’ linking Scotland and Northern Ireland, it was claimed yesterday.

In a remarkable about-turn, the Prime Minister now appears to favour an underwater crossing rather than a bridge.

Mr Johnson is expected to launch a full feasibility study to work out costings for the project – called a ‘Union tunnel’ in Whitehall because it could strengthen the links between the UK nations.

Scottish Secretary Alister Jack yesterday claimed the 25-mile tunnel could be completed within ten years and get round some of the problems posed by building a £15billion bridge between the two countries. It would also be cheaper.

The most direct route for Mr Johnson’s proposed 28-mile bridge would have crossed Beaufort’s

Dyke, a trench that contains more than a million tons of unexploded munitions, chemical weapons and radioactive waste.

Mr Jack said: ‘I’m very keen on [a crossing] now, but it’s not a bridge that I’m keen on, it’s a tunnel.’

He said it would be ‘no different’ to tunnels connecting the Faroe Islands or running under Norway’s fjords, ‘and it deals with the problem of Beaufort’s Dyke and the World War Two munitions. The bridge for me is a euphemism for a link, which is a tunnel.’

Mr Jack raised concerns that wind and storms could force a bridge to close up to 100 times a year.

He told journalists that it is ‘possible’ that there could be a combination of bridge and tunnels but added: ‘ The best solution if we’re going to link Scotland with Northern Ireland is a tunnel, and I’ve had conversations along those lines with the Prime Minister, who was keen on the idea when he went over and made a speech in Northern Ireland a number of years ago and he has remained keen ever since.’

The Scottish Secretary also said he has been told by a number of engineers that a tunnel would cost less than a bridge.

‘The Prime Minister and I have had a number of conversations about it and I would say we are on exactly the same page,’ he said. ‘The next step will be a full feasibility (study) but that is for the Prime Minister to announce.’

Mr Jack said that it would be ‘quite achievable’ to build the tunnel by 2030, because, he said, costs have come down and techniques have improved since the Channel Tunnel was built.

He added: ‘We believe it will be very good for the Northern Ireland economy, it will also be very good for the economy of South-West Scotland. It is a great strengthener of the Union to link the four nations together.’

Any crossing between Portpatrick in Western Scotland and Larne in Northern Ireland also require upgrades to the A77 linking Glasgow and Portpatrick and the A75 between Gretna and Portpatrick.

However, road infrastructure is controlled by the Scottish government and it would be up to it to decide whether to press ahead with the investment.

Yesterday the First Minister’s spokesman said: ‘Either a bridge or a tunnel in that part of that world, to that scale would be a colossal undertaking of which I’m not sure the viability has been confirmed.’

‘We are on exactly the same page’