Experts draw up plans to bridge Scotland and Northern Ireland with floating tube
Futuristic plans have been drawn up for a floating tube bridge linking Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has repeatedly given enthusiastic support to ambitious proposals for a 20 -mile bridge between Port patrick in Wigtownshire, and Larne, north of Belfast. The crossing could cost £15 billion according to initial estimates.
However, a team from Herio t-watt University in Ed inburgh has now proposed a less costly scheme involving the creation of a submerged floating tube bridge (SFTB).
Their vision would require less structural engineering work because instead of pillars it would be anchored to the sea bed and tethered to pontoons on the surface.
The tube through which traffic could pass would be 50m (164ft) below the surface. Cars could drive through or park on a high-speed shuttle train, which the designers say would be safer.
"It is also estimated the SFTB would cut the current ferry passage from Cairnryan Port to Northern Ireland from twoand-a-half-hours to 40 minutes.
"From an engineering perspective, an SFTB as a concept is very exciting ," saidEo in Macdonald, who is working on the project proposal ." It has the potential to transform how long-distance sea crossings are tackled."
Mr Macdonald’s enthusiasm was echoed by Finlay Carson, Scottish Conservative MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries, who said: "There is a lot of merit in a submerged floating tube bridge, especially if it brings significant financial benefits to the local economy in the southwest of Scotland as well as nationally."
A UK Government source said :" A link between Scotland and Northern Ireland is an exciting idea. It is fascinating to see topflight engineers working up concepts which might achieve that end."
The technology behind the tunnel is untested, although plans are under way to use it to link islands in Norway.
The idea of a link to Northern Ireland will be included in an independent review being carried out by Sir Peter Hendy, the chairman of Network Rail.
Plans for a Nor th Channel crossing have attracted scepticism because of the huge costs and the danger posed by Beau fort' s Dyke, a deep sea trench filled with dumped Second World War munitions. Bomb-disposal experts have warned it would be too dangerous to build a bridge if it was to involve spanning the vast offshore munitions dump. The dump site is not regularly monitored by the UK Government, although the construction of a British Gas pipeline two decades ago resulted in thousands of Second World War incendiary bombs being washed ashore, some of which exploded when they dried out. A four-year-old boy suffered burns in Campbeltown, Argyll, after picking up a device containing phosphorus.
The episode led to the last major survey of the maritime site, with dredging for the gas pipeline thought to have been the cause.
A Scottish Government spokesperson said: "We have no plans to take forward proposals for a bridge."