Bridge to Portpatrick

[dgadee]

Fugro Discovery research and survey vessel has been too and fro off Donaghadee today. It must be happening! The bridge to Portpatrick is really going to be built!

 

[dgadee]

Clearly looking for where to put the first caison. I said that Boris Johnson was a man of his word and wouldn't let us down.

Hopefully the funding will come from some of the Crossrail subsidies that we in Donaghadee have been sending over to London for years.

They might even have to increase the bus service when the bridge is completed. It's been once an hour for 30 years. They may put on a half hourly service!

 

[Biggles Wader]

View attachment 89756

Clearly looking for where to put the first caison. I said that Boris Johnson was a man of his word and wouldn't let us down.

Hopefully the funding will come from some of the Crossrail subsidies that we in Donaghadee have been sending over to London for years.

They might even have to increase the bus service when the bridge is completed. It's been once an hour for 30 years. They may put on a half hourly service!

Looking for somewhere to build the post brexit customs hall.

 

[dgadee]

Looking for somewhere to build the post brexit customs hall.

No, that'll be on the border. Or something. Not sure what Johnson promised us (maybe no border?) but being a man of his word it'll all be ok.

 

[dgadee]

It'll be good for the Chinese restaurant in the high street, too. Given that Brits build nothing and the Chinese build (and own) everything, there'll be lots of Chinese around the town.

Edit: Can I just make a correction. The Chinese restaurant in the high street closed after the Home Office arrested two staff for illegal entry. The one in New Street is the one which will benefit.

 

[dgadee]

Buy land in Port Logan - that's where it looks as though it is going to end up.

 

[dgadee]

Bad news. It's not the bridge Johnson promised us! It's just a bit of wire. What a disappointment. I bet you were all cheering the bridge on saying, at last, the provinces are getting the tranport links they deserve. No doubt our bus service will remain once per hour. Sad times.

 

[scruff]

A road bridge to NI?! Boris a man of his word?!

Bit early festivities is it not!?

 

[dgadee]

A road bridge to NI?! Boris a man of his word?!

Bit early festivities is it not!?

If London can get Crossrail 2, why can't Donaghadee get a bridge? Same price as London Olympics, they say.

 

[JumbleDuck]

Bad news. It's not the bridge Johnson promised us! It's just a bit of wire.

On a vaguely serious note, that puts the SCOT - NI 3 cable along the same route as the very first successful underwater cable in the world, laid in 1853 by the British and Irish Magnetic Telegraph Company from Dunskey to Donaghadee. From Portpatrick Harbour it is a pleasant coastal walk to Dunskey where you can see a small exhibition in the original repetear hut and even, if you look carefully, find the remains of the cable emerging on the beach.

 

[dgadee]

On a vaguely serious note, that puts the SCOT - NI 3 cable along the same route as the very first successful underwater cable in the world, laid in 1853 by the British and Irish Magnetic Telegraph Company from Dunskey to Donaghadee. From Portpatrick Harbour it is a pleasant coastal walk to Dunskey where you can see a small exhibition in the original repetear hut and even, if you look carefully, find the remains of the cable emerging on the beach.

I hope they bury it well on this side. Scallop dredgers plough up and down just where they have been surveying every year turning the seabed into a waste land.

 

[JumbleDuck]

I hope they bury it well on this side. Scallop dredgers plough up and down just where they have been surveying every year turning the seabed into a waste land.

I hate scallop dredgers. I notice that the northern cable route has a big dogleg in it to avoid the explode-y bits of the North Channel.

 

[JBJag27]

Ah, not even a cable car?

 

[mm42]

I hope they bury it well on this side. Scallop dredgers plough up and down just where they have been surveying every year turning the seabed into a waste land.

Clearly despite going to the expense of chartering a very expensive survey vessel they’ll not have thought of that.

 

[dgadee]

Ah, not even a cable car?

Johnson offered us a second hand one. He said it was 'practically unused'. But the people of Donaghadee declined. They are smarter than the people of Docklands.

 

[dgadee]

I've just written to Joanna Lumley. She seems to know a lot about bridges and Johnson seems to listen to her expertise. I suggested we call any bridge built the "Joanna Lumley Memorial A2 Garden Bridge". I know people in Portpatrick would prefer it to have A77 in the title, but - in my view - A2 sounds much more magnificent. The garden bit would come from following our underfunded roads department's strategy and just leave weeds to grow. We would also follow their model of not bothering to have any pavements or cycle paths for most of the roads in the Province. That would save some money and keep Londoners happy and with a bit more money for their Crossrail 2 project. We could also advertise the bridge as a cyclists' adventure route.

 

[JumbleDuck]

I've just written to Joanna Lumley. She seems to know a lot about bridges and Johnson seems to listen to her expertise.

Good move. Governments rush to fund any stupid idea Joanna Lumley can be persuaded to support. The Moat Brae project in Dumfries is a good example - a children's storytelling centre which is effectively inaccessible to 99% of the children of Scotland. It makes the Big Idea in Irvine look like a financially prudent investment.

 

[dinny]

hope they bury it well on this side. Scallop dredgers plough up and down just where they have been surveying every year turning the seabed into a waste land.

As far as I recall there was a piece of old telegraph cable sticking out of the sand near Millisle. They will definitely plough or jet in the whole route to a depth of 1 or maybe 2 metres, using a plough or/and an ROV, well beyond scallop dredges or anchors.
Denis (ex ROV Pilot, Global Marine).

 

[dunedin]

As far as I recall there was a piece of old telegraph cable sticking out of the sand near Millisle. They will definitely plough or jet in the whole route to a depth of 1 or maybe 2 metres, using a plough or/and an ROV, well beyond scallop dredges or anchors.
Denis (ex ROV Pilot, Global Marine).

That could be fun through an area reportedly having a lot of dumped ammunition, often with the drop locations rather imprecisely recorded.

 

[JumbleDuck]

That could be fun through an area reportedly having a lot of dumped ammunition, often with the drop locations rather imprecisely recorded.

I believe most of the problem is on the Scottish side, because impatient captains of dumping ships frequently didn't wait till they were over the Beaufort Dyke, or even anywhere near it, to unload.