A LEADING architect will demand governments across the British Isles work together on a feasibility study into a £15 billion bridge connecting Scotland and Ireland as The National reveals an artist’s impression of the structure.
Professor Alan Dunlop produced the drawing which he will show to academic experts at a conference at Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen today.
And he will tell the audience of international architects that research should be carried out to establish the economic and social benefits of the bridge and assess any geological and engineering challenges it would pose.
The National unveiled Dunlop’s Celtic bridge plan in January and our report was followed up by media organisations across the world.
The proposal united nationalist and unionist politicians on both sides of the Irish Border and on both sides of the Irish Sea. Irish deputy prime minister Simon Coveney, DUP leader Arlene Foster, Scottish Brexit Secretary Mike Russell and former Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson have all given their backing to the plan.
“We have the engineering and architectural talent and the capability to build this project. It would be a transformative economic generator and a world first,” he will say in his keynote address to the Urbanism at Borders Conference.
Dunlop will also consider developments in Norway, a country with a population similar to Scotland, which is in the process of investing £30bn to create the Norwegian Coastal Highway, a 1100 km route from Kristiansand in the south to Trondheim in the north.
The road will cross 20 fjords, some more than 600 metres deep, using floating bridges and tunnel connections.
Dunlop will say: “The Norwegian Coastal Highway is a pioneering and remarkable infrastructure project and a sign of confidence for a forward-looking innovative country.
“Scotland and Ireland surely can achieve the same.”
The architect will also discuss the Øresund Bridge which connects Copenhagen in Denmark with Malmo in Sweden.
Copenhagen has a population that is comparable to Glasgow, and Malmo with Edinburgh. The Øresund Bridge was the result of a collaboration by both countries, each with a distinct, proud history but who “share a Nordic Cultural Heritage”.
More than 25 million people use the crossing each year and the Bridge has made a £10bn return on the initial investment since its opening 18 years ago. It has established the Oresund Economic Region which employs 4m million people.
However, professor Dunlop will tell conference goers that the case for the Celtic bridge is not only about economic benefit to the Ayrshire and Antrim coasts or Cowal peninsula but also about establishing closer social, cultural and political relations between Scotland and Ireland in the shifting post-Brexit climate.
He said: “Politics in Scotland, Ireland, and in the rest of the UK are in an extreme state of flux. With questions over Brexit, border controls, and even independence still to be answered... A bridge link will re-balance the over concentration of power in the south of England and could bring extraordinary benefit to many areas. It would be an investment in the true north.”
Dunlop has estimated the bridge could cost between £15bn to £20bn and could be built between Larne and Portpatrick or between the Mull of Kintyre and Torr Head.
He has said that while the Beaufort’s Dyke – a 300m-deep sea trench off the Scots coast – would prove challenging for engineers, the part above the dyke could be attached to the bottom and float, “much like an oil rig”.
Commenting in January, former NI Economy Minister Simon Hamilton said: “Imagine being able to board a train in Belfast or Dublin and be in Glasgow or Edinburgh in just a few hours. It would revolutionise our trade and tourism never mind our sense of interconnectedness.”
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