PM’S ‘fantasy’ Northern Ireland bridge would cost up to £330bn, study finds

BORIS Johnson’s plan for a fixed link between Scotland and Northern Ireland has been exposed as an impossibly expensive fantasy by an official study into the idea.

Despite initial estimates that a tunnel or bridge could cost £20billion, experts said the final cost could be more than £300bn and it could take 30 years to build.

The HS2 rail project is estimated to cost £100bn.

Sir Peter Hendy was commissioned by the UK Government to assess the feasibility of constructing a fixed transport link between Northern Ireland and Great Britain as part of his Union Connectivity review.

But the official study has concluded that to construct either a tunnel or a bridge between the two countries would be “impossible to justify” due to the extortionate costs involved.

The research found a bridge, or tunnel, would be the longest structure of its kind ever built.

Sir Peter said: “The indicative cost estimate for the full route, including optimism bias, is £335bn for a bridge crossing and £209bn for a tunnel crossing.

“Planning, design, parliamentary and legal processes, and construction would take nearly 30 years before the crossing could become operational, even given a smooth passage of funding and authority to proceed.”

Sir Peter said that “future transport technological advances” including autonomous vehicles could mean a link could be brought forward “at a lower cost”.

But he added: “For now, though, the benefits could not possibly outweigh the costs to the public purse.

“It is therefore my recommendation to Government that further work on the fixed link should not progress beyond this feasibility study.”

The report also said Beaufort’s Dyke – an underwater trench on the most direct route between Scotland and Northern Ireland – would need to be “carefully surveyed” due to a million tons of unexploded munitions being dumped there between the First World War and the 1970s.

A bridge would need a “sacrificial outer layer” enabling its main structure to survive a “local detonation”, the study said.

SNP transport spokesperson, Gavin Newlands, said: “From the outset, Boris Johnson’s plans for a bridge between Scotland and Northern Ireland were fantasy – and this report shows that the £20 billion figure the UK Government said it would cost was a fantasy too.

“The whole project lays bare the incompetence of the UK Government and how out of touch with Scotland it is.

“However, the £20 billion the bridge was originally reported to cost and which his government did not dispute when he was touting it – over £3,600 per person in Scotland – should be handed over to the Scottish Government to be used to meet Scotland’s priorities and transport needs.”