TUNNEL VISION
Page 40
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
I read with interest your news item about "a new system called immersed tube tunnelling" to be used for a proposed Wales-Ireland fixed link ( CM2-8 March). This "new system" has in fact been in widespread use for more than a century, and there are many such tunnels throughout the developed world, albeit not as long as the one proposed.
I look forward to further scoops from your journalistic sleuths; "A new system of propulsion called the internal combustion engine", or "A new system of road construction called tarmacadam". You really should get out more!
While on the subject, has it occurred to anybody but me to question why we should give priority to constructing such a tunnel to Ireland with its population of just a few million?
One or more tunnels of similar lengthen the bed of the much shallower southern North Sea could benefit many times more people by providing this country with a direct Continental link via Belgium and Holland, This would eliminate our dependence on passing through the large and overpowerful brigand state on the other side of the Channel (English, not St George's) which continually allows and encourages its strikers and officials to disrupt and plunder our international transport services to the rest of Europe. Chris Veasey, Director, Transport and Traffic Consultancy, Ealing, London.
• Point taken. Chris, but to be fair our expertise lies in trucks, not tunnels, and when it comes to civil engineering we tend to accept what were told. Your remarks on a North Sea tunnel are interesting do other readers have a view on this? -=