Boris’s bridge to Ulster? The idea is 130 years old!
...and here are the drawings that prove it
IT IS Boris Johnson’s grand vision for a truly united kingdom – a vast bridge between Scotland and Northern Ireland as ambitious as any Victorian feat of engineering.
But The Mail on Sunday can reveal that the Prime Minister’s proposal for part of the route to use an undersea tunnel is remarkably similar to a blueprint given serious consideration 130 years ago.
Drawn up by Victorian naval architect James Maxton, the plans for a ‘submerged buoyant bridge’ are even couched in the same florid language loved by Boris.
Details were delivered in a lecture to Belfast’s Natural History and Philosophical Society in 1890 and set out four options for routes across the Irish Sea to the mainland.
Acknowledging the challenges, Maxton warned: ‘Subaqueous tunnelling is proverbially one of the most uncertain undertakings in civil engineering. Unforeseen mishaps make even the most sanguine fear the results.’
While accepting ‘the engineering difficulties are stupendous’, he argued that ‘neither political nor military objections to the scheme are tenable’.
His favoured scheme would have run for nearly 22 miles from Donaghadee in County Down to Portpatrick in Wigtownshire. Mr Johnson’s likeliest route is between Portpatrick and Larne in County Antrim.
Maxton’s plan featured a bridge, a viaduct and a tunnel and was designed to carry trains propelled by electricity or compressed air. The vast underwater section, submerged to a depth of 60ft, would have been held in place by a system of anchors. The architect estimated his ‘submerged bridge’ would take less than six years to build and cost £5.25million at 1890 prices, compared to current estimates of £20billion.
Hailing the scheme at the time, Charles Dickens Junior, son of the famous novelist and president of Belfast’s Philosophical Society, wrote: ‘It would be totally impossible to estimate the advantage that would accrue to this country if railway communication could be established between Ireland and Scotland and England.’
Maxton was one of Britain’s most prominent naval architects, designing many of the vessels built in Belfast’s shipyards of the era. As recently as 1956, his bridge and tunnel scheme was cited in parliamentary debates on the possibility of linking Scotland and Ulster. The Mail on Sunday last week revealed that Mr Johnson will soon receive results of a feasibility study into a 21st Century bridge and tunnel project.
But modern-day engineers face challenges even more severe than those envisaged by Maxton. They have proposed a bridge-tunnel split as a way of dealing with Beaufort’s Dyke, the UK’s largest offshore dump site for conventional and chemical munitions after the Second World War.
The Prime Minister’s bright idea of a road and rail bridge linking Scotland with Northern Ireland is an expensive distraction from more pressing problems which would benefit from the billions this would cost.
Quite apart from the technical problems of building a bridge over Beaufort’s Dyke, with its thousands of tons of corroding munitions and chemicals, there will be other issues to overcome.
Hundreds of miles of new or upgraded roads and railways will be needed to link to the Scottish side of the bridge. And railways in either Ireland or the UK will need to be rebuilt so as to have a common track gauge.
Still, it could be a useful link between a future united Ireland and an independent Scotland that has rejoined the EU. Alistair Grey, Workington, Cumbria
I think building a bridge between Portpatrick, Wigtownshire, and Larne in Northern Ireland is a great idea, even though it would cost £20billion. My only thought is, if the project is given the goahead, what’s the betting that halfway through the building of it, it is announced that the cost has gone up to £120billion? Peter Pinker, Bridport, Dorset
Before a bridge between Scotland and Northern Ireland becomes a reality, may I respectfully suggest that those involved enter into
‘how to’ discussions with those nations that have already completed projects of this nature. They would be able to advise on the pitfalls and also how to complete it on time and on budget.
Our representatives would also learn to avoid the mistakes made when we built our early motorways, which crumbled to pieces in a short time, when a word with the Germans would have set them on the correct path.
On the same note, have we discussed HS2 with the Japanese? P. Aucock, Evesham
We already have a bridge – the Queensferry Crossing – that the SNP told us would never close, yet it now appears it may never be open when there is snow or ice.
We have two ferries for CalMac still under construction, at a yard nationalised by the SNP, with both vessels massively over budget and three years late. We have a new children’s hospital in Edinburgh that is costing us more than £1 million a month but still doesn’t have any patients.
We have educational attainment which, when assessed independently against international comparisons, is deteriorating.
Should we be surprised when we have a First Minister who is wholly obsessed by the constitutional issue of independence? Andrew White, Livingston, West Lothian
In the event of adverse weather which may result in the closure of the Queensferry Crossing, why not transfer the Scottish parliament’s MSPs to the bridge? The resultant rising of hot air will prevent the formation of ice. W. MacKenzie, Brora, Sutherland
Gabrielle could have walked off the show at the time if she felt her health was being compromised. To me, this lawsuit is clearly linked to her being axed. D. Cleary, London
What is Gabrielle trying to prove by suing Simon? That there’s no smoke without being fired? Vincent Hefter, Richmond-upon-Thames