Something like 20% (IIRC) of the entire world’s seaborne freight goes through the Channel. Amazing but true.
It is the busiest sea lane in the world. With strict lane discipline, despite which you do NOT want physical structures in the way of so many large ships!
Is pressure higher underground? I know that the ‘weight’ of water makes pressure higher at greater depths of water, but the chunnel is through rock, not water. Although the top is close enough to the ‘surface’ of the rock and the water at some points that some special measures were needed, I seem to recall. Ah … thinking about it, I guess I just indirectly made your point - you mean ‘the pressure on the rock above the tunnel would be huge’.
It doesn’t look like there are even any ferries across the strait. One major obstacle to this huge infrastructure project would be if nobody is interested in using it.
Well, it just potentially shifts the problem from road to rail - did you know there is a similar divide between countries where rail traffic uses the left or the right track on double track sections?
For the Chunnel, however, this is not a problem, as both the UK and France have trains using the left track.
ETA: A solution for both road and rail is to build a flyover…
actually the quantitative easing hasn’t stopped. Up to 2018 the Fed, ECB, Bank of England, Japan etc has spent 17 trillion $ (in Euros, Dollars, Yen) buying up toxic assets and holding them.
Well that’s true now, but what about in a generation or two when all the ice has melted and there’s mass migration to the polar regions to escape the heat? Especially since the USAnians won’t be able to go to the south polar regions because some arse put a wall in the way?
