Bridges are going everywhere.

[dgadee]

Bridge proposals progress to connect Orkney and Scottish mainland - The Orcadian Online

 

[sarabande]

17, yes SEVENTEEN kilometres of bridge.

A vanity project of extreme proportions. Who is going to pay for it ?

 

[dgadee]

They will stop off at Stroma, no doubt. The English hopefully will pay.

 

[Wansworth]

Why?Surely the islands Don want clogging up with articulated trucks and cars,madd ess

 

[dgadee]

Why?Surely the islands Don want clogging up with articulated trucks and cars,madd ess

Economic regeneration? Don't you have a problem in Galicia with being at the end of everything?

 

[Wansworth]

Economic regeneration? Don't you have a problem in Galicia with being at the end of everything?

I can see your point but be careful what you wish for.With internet I imagine you can be connected to anywhere and could attract people interested in island life. Here in Galicia we have the old problem of people leaving to find good jobs but would a road bridge solve that

 

[awol]

A vanity project of extreme proportions. Who is going to pay for it ?

At last a Brexit benefit! It's about time.

Transport Scotland has a track record of recording the results of brain-storming sessions, e.g. Project Corridor Options - Access to Argyll and Bute (A83) | Transport Scotland, and I am glad they do but as with all brain-storming it is difficult for some to enter into the process and resist shooting down the ideas. Perhaps we should be proffering our own suggestions for improving connectivity and "levelling up".

 

[dgadee]

I can see your point but be careful what you wish for.With internet I imagine you can be connected to anywhere and could attract people interested in island life. Here in Galicia we have the old problem of people leaving to find good jobs but would a road bridge solve that

A decent road to Gills Bay would be an asset to Caithness. There is only one decent passing place after Inverness - at Golspie. Anyway, loads of English moved to Orkney and didn't leave so there must be something up there attracting inward movement.

 

[Wansworth]

Yes a bitlikeGalicia quite a few i comers but they are retired,young people like my daughter had to go to Madrid tu witha top notch internet installation she could work from Galicia.We have wonderful main roads but growth only happens round established towns and cities .The population isdwindling

 

[ylop]

Its the job of the transport agency to consider all options - this ensures that when some MP/MSP asks the government why it hasn't been built they can give a vaguely sensible answer. It also helps justify investment in alternatives like better ferries etc. I'm not saying it 100% will not happen - if the study says it is actually a remarkably good value for money option and the A9 etc have the capacity for the traffic, and the islanders would want it then it should happen. It would also need to satisfy the green agenda - it might do that if the bridge also helped get renewable energy back to the mainland, or perhaps there was some tidal generation integrated into the engineering.

I can see your point but be careful what you wish for.With internet I imagine you can be connected to anywhere and could attract people interested in island life. Here in Galicia we have the old problem of people leaving to find good jobs but would a road bridge solve that

depends why there are "no good jobs" on the islands. If its transport connections it might. If its that it takes forever to get anything to/from the islands to major centres of population a bridge landing at the very top of Scotland doesn't really solve that. Part of any study would look at the downsides as well as the upsides - I am sure that they could learn a lot about that from Skye. I suspect you are right though - economic development that brought fibre internet to every home and business on Orkney could surely do more for far less cost?

 

[penfold]

The replacement cost of the inter-island ferries plus the cost of air service subsidy mean fixed links actually make economic sense in the long term. The locals can decide they don't want it but need to recognise that it means less of everything else in the future.

 

[Lightwave395]

We could do with a bridge down here across the Solent

 

[dgadee]

We could do with a bridge down here across the Solent

No. All your transport money down south was spent on Crossrail. Most of ours up here, too, was spent on Crossrail.

 

[The Q]

Wouldn't get a bridge there, it would probably be a tunnel, easy to dig through the chalk..

population Orkneys, 20,000 approx,
population IoW, 140,000...

 

[Wansworth]

And when all that extra road traffic sets it’s wheels on the island then what?

 

[dgadee]

Wouldn't get a bridge there, it would probably be a tunnel, easy to dig through the chalk..

population Orkneys, 20,000 approx,
population IoW, 140,000...

That's just the kind of argument they used for Crossrail.

 

[MoodySabre]

 

[Lightwave395]

And when all that extra road traffic sets it’s wheels on the island then what?

If nothing else it would increase tourism, on which the island depends, provide more employment opportunities, particularly for the young who could easily commute to the mainland for work and ease residents from being held to ransom by the 2 ferry cartels.

 

[awol]

We could do with a bridge down here across the Solent

Waste of money! Sea levels rising, land sinking - the island will be gone before they finished building a bridge if Crossrail and HS2 are indicators of performance.

 

[Wansworth]

If nothing else it would increase tourism, on which the island depends, provide more employment opportunities, particularly for the young who could easily commute to the mainland for work and ease residents from being held to ransom by the 2 ferry cartels.

But the roads and parking would need to improve…..what about a light railway?