Bojo the bridge builder.

[Workingman]

Having spectacularly failed to get a bridge with a handful of plants and shrubs on it across a few hundred metres of London water at a cost of £53m he is tuning his sights on bigger things.

Much bigger things, a bridge across the Irish sea connecting Scotland and Northern Ireland. He apparently has two choices: a 12 mile one from nowhere to nowhere; or a 24 mile one from, err, nowhere to Larne. He is putting his considerable (body) weight behind one or the other, but he's not sure which just yet only that it's a spiffing good idea.

Of course the BBC and Sky have wheeled out their favourite experts and architects to enlighten us that it is technically and feasibly possible, but there was little on the commercial aspects only that it could cost up to £35bn.

And on that note Bojo has set up a team of government wonks with their PPEs and History of Art degrees to look into it. We will not know his decision until possibly the Autumn when Dominic has spent time with the report while dunking his chocolate digestives into his lukewarm milky coffee and tells him what it is.

Meanwhile, back in reality world, there's a country to run.

[Kaz]

Good grief! The man is determined to go down as the greatest (buffoon of a) PM ever, isn't he?

[cromwell]

Ah yes, PPE. Politics, Philosophy and Economics.
Also known as P*ss Poor at Everything.
I don't know about building a bridge. I mean, why?
I can exclusively reveal here though that I own the Humber Bridge.
It's for sale and a snip at £1 billion
Used twenties preferred!

[Workingman]

Good grief! The man is determined to go down as the greatest (buffoon of a) PM ever, isn't he?

I thought he was that already... the scary thing is that he appears to want to wear the badge with pride.

If you go to Google Maps and search fro Stranraer and then start to zoom out you will see the 24 mile stretch of water to be crossed. Keep zooming out and you will get a triangle of Stranraer, Glasgow and Carlisle and what do you see? Acres of nothing. Zoom out a bit further to bring in Newcastle and Edinburgh and you get more acres of nothingness. Where is all the toll paying traffic going to come from?

As for the Humber bridge - another white elephant going from nowhere to nowhere. North Lincs and East Yorks are largely rural and the promised motorway level upgrades to the A15, A18 and A62 to connect them and Hull and Grimsby to the motorway network never materialised. So, we ended up with what was the world's longest suspension bridge for nearly 20 years connected to some fields via goat tracks. We are good at that sort of thing.... as Bojo is about to show us yet again.

[TheOstrich]

The shortest logical crossing would be Portpatrick to Larne, which as you say is around 24 miles. The Oresund road/rail bridge between Sweden and Denmark is 13 miles. Partially this is in a tunnel from Denmark to an artificial island 5 miles from the Swedish coast, but after that it's on a bridge.

The existence of the Beaufort's Dyke trench in the Irish Sea rules out any form of complete tunnel, but using a strategically placed artificial island or two could enable some sort of tunnel / bridge combination. The engineering is quite feasible.

The current Stena ferry crossing from Cairnryan is regarded as a bit of a joke as connectivity, especially at the Dumfries and Galloway end, is pretty much non-existent. To get a viable road / rail system you'd need to reinstate the Carlisle to Stranraer railway line (I don't know, but that might actually be on Transport Scotland's current agenda) and also massively upgrade the existing A75 trunk road to connect with the M6/A74 motorway.

There's plenty of existing freight traffic between Larne and Cairnryan - roll on / roll off lorries - it's something over 5m tonnes per year, so it can be argued there is a demand for a road / rail bridge. Belfast to Heysham (Lancs) accounts for a similar tonnage.

In short, it can be done, at a cost - it all depends how much you want to strengthen Northern Ireland's links with the rest of the UK, I guess, especially in the current climate of Brexit and RoI politics. There's also green politics to consider, as most foot traffic to Northern Ireland is by air these days. I think if you're going to build something like HS2, there's no reason why an Irish Sea crossing shouldn't be at least considered.

[Suff]

There is another extremely good reason for Bojo to do this.

It is not SE England. It is investment in more northern areas who voted for him in a big way. I expect that the next 5 years will see little investment in the traditional areas that spurned Bojo in the last election and a LOT in the new areas who took a chance on him.

It may not happen, but there will be big infra projects in the midlands and the north without a doubt.

For me it would seem to be an opportunity for so much more. Especially for offshore free port facilities. Something this government is certainly looking at. After all if we need to build an artificial island, then we could build a Big artificial island.

There are several tunnelling techniques which don't require a channel tunnel style tunnel and there is even a growing movement for a submerged floating tunnel which would deal with the Beaufort's Dyke issue.

I have taken ferries from Stranraer and Cairnryan and have driven the A75 more times than I've crossed as I used to pick up family who had come over.

In short the route sucks and I wouldn't do it by choice. Much better to do the route further south, it would even be faster to come down the motorway than to transit Glasgow and fight your way down the A75. The last 10 miles of the road is like a roller coaster laid flat on the ground.

[Workingman]

Last time I looked Stranraer was in Scotland and the Tories lost, what was it, seven seats?

Also the Beaufort Dyke trench; that would be the one with about a million tons of munitions and a couple of tons of nuclear waste dumped in it, would it? And we're going to float a tunnel over its two mile width are we!

And he's going to create a freeport - in a town of about 11,000 - with the nearest places of any size some 75 miles away down "roller coasters laid flat on the ground." That's bound to be a raging success. I'll take 49% of the shares, here's my £1.

The 5m tonnes of ferry trade, though, that's a bit different. It's a big number, well it is on its own, but break it down a bit... Let's say it is carried by a mix of vehicles from panel vans, 7.5 tonners, and 44 tonne artics and draw-bars at an average of 25 tonnes. That's 200,000 lorries; an impressive figure. But they are running year round so that's about 550 every day. There are some 11 sailings each day from Cairnryan to Larne / Belfast so 50 each per sailing on ships that can carry the equivalent of 375 cars (Stena) to 661 cars (P&O). However, except for a few sailings the ships are hardly ¾ full. And Bojo wants a £35bn bridge?

Mind you I do like the island idea. Bojo Island, now where have I heard that before? There could be a slip road off the bridge to Bojo Island airport. It could have one of those hyperloop things all the way down to his brand new Heathrow Terminal 17 - no need for a new runway. The man's a genius

[cromwell]

Also the Beaufort Dyke trench; that would be the one with about a million tons of munitions and a couple of tons of nuclear waste dumped in it, would it?

During the early days of WW2 Britain was struggling for arms. Ordinary citizens in America helped out by donating some of their own guns, which were no doubt gratefully received.
After the war these guns were put into barrels, filled with concrete and thrown into the Beaufort Dyke trench.
The British govt has been wary of the proles for a long time, especially after a war.

[Workingman]

I see the Queensferry bridge, which was hoped to remain open in all weathers, has closed due to a weather event. not o worry though, travellers can still get from A to B with a 35 mile detour via a smaller bridge at Kincardine.

That can't happen with Bojo's Celtic Arches unless he builds both the 12 mile and the 24 mile bridges. The detour would only be about 150 miles... what's not to like?

[Suff]

The Queensferry bridge was shut due to drivers not being able to drive in the ice and causing a multi car pile up. But it is an issue.

You were talking about the 5M volume in freight.

If he builds the bridge from England, Scotland loses the trade and the NW gets it.

35bn? Peanuts. Well to the UK, not ireland that is nearly 10% of GDP.

As for Heathrow, if you recall, Bojo was against runway3. He wanted a whole new airport in the Estuary....