Officials are examining the potential for a bridge linking Scotland and Northern Ireland, an idea championed by Boris Johnson.
Downing Street said a “range of officials” were looking at the idea, but were unable to say how many civil servants were examining proposals.
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said it was a “proper piece of work” and Mr Johnson was “ambitious” about infrastructure projects across the country.
Mr Johnson has repeatedly spoken about the prospect of a bridge, even though experts have warned that the depth of the Irish Sea and the presence of dumped munitions would cause problems for any project.
The project could cost a reported £20 billion, although Mr Johnson has previously said it would “only cost about £15 billion”.
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “The PM set out this was an idea which he believed could have some merit so, as a result of that, you would expect the Government to be looking into it.”
The scoping work is being run from Number 10, with a range of officials reporting into it.
Infrastructure projects
“The PM is ambitious in terms of infrastructure projects,” Mr Johnson’s spokesman said.
“He’s looking at a wide range of schemes across the UK which could improve connectivity.”
The Prime Minister told MPs “watch this space” when asked about the prospect of a “Boris bridge” in Parliament in December 2019.
The distance from Larne to Portpatrick, one of the most likely routes for a bridge, is around 45km.
There is no problem with distance, money or the Beaufort’s Dyke explosives disposal area, according to the Prime Minister.
In November 2018, he said: “The problem is not the undersea Beaufort’s Dyke or lack of funds. The problem is an absence of political will.”
Government sources said it was possible to build a bridge which has a tunnelled section to cope with some of the difficulties caused by the depth of the Irish Sea.
So I see a claim there is no problem with Beaufort’s Dyke, after all it’s only 200-300 metres in depth over a 50 Km long and 3.50 Km wide stretch with over a million tons of hazardous waste
Wiki notes
Dumped munitions
Because of its depth and its proximity to the Cairnryan military port, it became the United Kingdom’s largest offshore dump site for conventional and chemical munitions after the Second World War; in July 1945, 14,500 tons of 5-inch (130-millimetre) artillery rockets filled with phosgene were dumped in Beaufort’s Dyke.[1] The Ministry of Defence estimates that there are well over a million tons of munitions at the bottom of Beaufort’s Dyke.[2]
Munitions have subsequently been washed up on beaches in the area. In particular, in 1995, incendiary devices were discovered on the Scottish and Northern Irish coasts.[citation needed] This coincided with the laying of the Scotland-Northern Ireland pipeline (SNIP), a 24-inch (610-millimetre) gas interconnector constructed by British Gas.[citation needed]
Nuclear waste
According to documents discovered at the Public Record Office approximately two tonnes of concrete-encased metal drums, filled with radioactive laboratory rubbish and luminous paint, were dumped during the 1950s into Beaufort Dyke, 300 metres deep and 10 kilometres off the Scottish coast.[3]
Quite literally this project is another Boris Johnson dead herring bridge project – remember the London Garden Bridge https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-47228698
Please stop publishing this stuff it’s simply a distraction.