General Chat

Should a bridge be built between Britain and France as suggested by Boris Johnson today to the French president, the argument is that time has moved on from the euro star and now we need a road, what more will the Tory’s want millions of tons of soil dumped in the channel between us so we are joined up again.

I can think of better things to spend the money on! :-D

As I understand bridge building, they wouldn't dump soil in the Channel ................ they drive pylons down into the bed rock to support the bridge, and start the bridge well away from the shore .................

look at the Confederation Bridge between Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick .....

http://www.confederationbridge.com/about/confederation-bridge.html

it closes every time there are high winds :-D


But .................. I agree, bridge between England and France not worth the money. The Confederation Bridge is 8 miles long, took 4 years to build, with thousands of workers, and cost 1 billion dollars (Canadian $).

No, they drive on the wrong side of the road.

Sylvia I did not mean dump soil to make the bridge what I meant was fill the channel between Britain and France up with soil so has make Britain and France United

No bridge, too many possible problems including weather as already mentioned.

Also the closure of a major shipping route

When the chunnel was built a bridge was not technically feasible. Now it is. It would be much cheaper than a second tunnel. Designs are compatible with shipping. The main obstacles are cost and politics. I think such a bridge will be built within 20 years but no time soon.

There is a limit to the capacity of the chunnel and short sea crossings. Eventually that will force the issue.

A bridge would be of suspension design. Any kind of causeway / "filling in the channel" is impossible.

No Way.

I love France, so bring it on! :-D

Wonder what they would put on the ends to sort the driving on opposite sides of the road problem? A sort of Spaghetti junction???

It’s bad enough when when the weather causes the QE2 Bridge to be closed, ditto the Channel Tunnel or Ports. There’s nowhere for the stranded vehicles to park up & causes chaos for everyone else.
Our government, regardless of colour, doesn’t do joined up thinking.

I cant see the point of a bridge - the Channel Tunnel isn't running at full capacity as it is.
The 'Garden Bridge' - a useless piece of self aggrandisement by Johnson, cost the public £37 million just to try to get it off the ground.
To actually build it would have cost another £200 million.
How many millions/billions would a bridge to France cost - when you consider it would have to enable some darned big ships through on a regular basis!

Perhaps, if Johnson is determined, they should try building a bridge to the Isle of Wight first. Shorter distance, and, like a bridge to France, it would have to be able to regularly allow huge ships along the channel.

Good idea Maggie!

how much too to do border security

The French already wants us to pay more now

My grandson is a lorry driver and is often on the continent He still has to run the gauntlet of illegals trying to get into his lorry. If they do succeed and are caught he stands to be fined too as well as his company

he is fed up with it TBH

Pros and cons?

Pro:

1. Connection to Europe.

Cons:

1. High winds will definitely close the bridge (as Sylvia writes). The Forth Bridge, the Humber Crossing, the Severn and even the Tyne Bridge have often been closed to high-sided vehicles.

2. The cost to the taxpayer - far too much for the benefits it would bring.

3. The cost to rail company (will result in objections from companies).

4. The cost to shipping (again, will result in objections).

Local roads and motorways here would be even more chaotic if weather, French strikes or whatever caused delays.

............but then the extra volume of traffic would 'justify' the powers-that- be who want to build a huge lorry park in countryside near the Channel Tunnel.

No thanks !

All of these objections were made against "the Bridge" which crosses the Oresund linking Copenhagen in Denmark with Malmo in Sweden. The Bridge got built anyway and has been v successful with v little down time due to inclement weather, far worse than anything nr Dover. It even starred in a TV crime series.

Shipping from yachts to super tankers in the Dover Straits is already tightly controlled as the navigable water for large vessels is limited. The Straits are territorial waters of Britain and France not international.

If the last 50 years are anything to go by EU/UK trade will at least double over the next 30 years. Anybody who knows the channel ports will be well aware that they are already operating close to max capacity and the scope for expansion is very limited.

Much the same applies to air travel.

Given that the technology to build such a bridge now exists and has been proven then a bridge linking Dover and Calais will be built. My guess is within 20 years. Thatcher was very much against the Chunnel and denied it any UK govt funding. It still got built.

btw by 2040 UK Gov expects most HGV long distance trucking to be run as road trains with several trucks under the control of the lead. At some point the lead driver will be replaced with a robot. There would not be a lot of opportunity for illegals. brexit or not the UK esp the TRRL (transport and road research lab) are working closely with our EU neighbours and truck makers on this project.

At around 22 miles long...no way. Are there any bridges in the world this big?

I like the gap between us and France. If its bulit the illegals will still try and get on the bridge and walk to Britain.

How would tall ships get through the channel then?

Florence
in the hebrides :-|

There are several bridges longer than that. The Chinese are particularly good at constructing them. One rail bridge is over 100 miles long.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_longest_bridges