||| FROM CNN.COM |||
In the Faroe Islands, wild, unpredictable weather — fierce winds and rain, and thick fog that settles like a curtain — can sometimes make travel by car or ferry problematic. No wonder the Faroese love their tunnels.
They’ve built 17 of them on land and four subsea — including the world’s only subsea tunnel with a roundabout that’s underwater.
The network makes for easier navigation of the self-governing island nation within the Kingdom of Denmark.
“Though we are 18 islands, we often joke that (because of the tunnels) we defy the fact that we are islands,” says Súsanna Sørensen, marketing manager of Visit Faroe Islands. Located in the North Atlantic halfway between Iceland and Scotland, the volcanic islands’ unspoiled scenery wows visitors.
The two latest subsea tunnels are statement makers, too.
“These are our Eiffel Tower or Big Ben,” says Teitur Samuelsen, CEO of Eystur-og Sandoyartunlar, the company operating the tunnels, “with people, especially tourists, driving through them just to see the art.”
Art? Yes, indeed. A stunning marriage of art and engineering.
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Gee, maybe the state could do this here! Why not start with a short tunnel from Orcas to Lopez? Then follow that with one from Lopez to San Juan? The Tillikum is ready for retirement.
I suggest we put a donation box for an undersea tunnel at every SJC ferry terminal. As soon as we raise a billion dollars, we’ll get started!
How about putting them on the SEATTLE to Bremerton or Seattle to Bainbridge?
There is more traffic on those and somewhat shorter runs. This might be cheaper than buying new electric ferries. The spare ferries could then be assigned to up here.
We traveled such a tunnel (7 miles long) to cross a fyord in Iceland. There were no EVs then. These projects have a serious problem with air quality. We returned the long way They also “unisland” islands, turning them into suburbs. But yes, they’re engineers’ and geologists’ dream projects.
We’re talking maybe one or two miles of tunneling here, guys, and that should not cost a billion dollars, Ken. This is something the state can afford to build, and they should be the responsible, managing party — perhaps with county contributions. We should not have an inter-island transportation system that goes down when a few ferry workers cannot show up for work, or the Tillikum has to go into the shop. Are you listening, Justin? And what about you, Alex and Debra and Liz?
This discussion is likely in humor, but I was curious anyway, and found a paper on the environmental impacts of underwater tunneling and construction. There are many, that I won’t list here. Needless to say, I said “yikes!”
Thanks for that article Lin! My synapses are sparking with thoughts and questions. My screen savers are often of the stark and stunning Faroe Islands but I never imagined undersea road tunnels. Since cost and enviro considerations were never mentioned I presume the 55,700 residents and government of Denmark didn’t balk. The deep layers of volcanic basalt that create such awesome cliffs are an indicator as to how relatively simple drilling and such were.
Even if we were 3 times our population, sat on such thick basalt with shallower crossings and were not in a hot spot in the ring of fire the EIS would run to a thousand pages with exceedingly hopeful protection of shrinking SRKWs from vibrations during drilling and blasting, etc. being the death knell. In terms of cost etc I think in comparison even departed Sam Buck Sr’s early ideas of a bridge between Lopez and SJI at Cattle Point would be far cheaper. But why would the friendly island want such a direct connection to Sin City?
Beth Robson is right. What would we do, for example, with all the tunnel drilling spoils?
But wait! We could use them to build a little mountain on flat Lopez Island, giving Lopezians something to climb, get much-needed exercise, and view the glorious Salish Sea vistas we take for granted here on Orcas Island, with Turtleback and Mt. Constitution only steps away.
Since these islands, and Iceland and Greenland are all part of the Danish kingdom, one wonders whether Trump will seize them once he’s invaded Greenland. Though maybe, since they are all part of NATO, this will have to wait until he withdraws the US from that organization. And how useful to have tunnels to bury electric and fiber telecom cables in, given the recent spate of “accidental” anchor-dragging, cable-breaking events in the Baltic, which seem to have become a trend? I imagine that Russian subs spend time in the area, which might be why for the first time a US fast attack nuclear sub docked there last year.
Yes, I’m afraid we won’t manage to pull off a similar engineering project here in the Puget Sound, for reasons others have given. And the last example of a large scale tunneling project–the Alaskan way viaduct replacement of a few years back–ran way over budget and way behind schedule. Wait–someone call Elon and his Boring Company!
Re: Mr. Austin’s comment: Iceland is a sovereign nation that has been fully independent from Denmark since 1944.
Re: tunnels and bridges: no thanks. Anyone who’s struggling to survive due to the shortcomings of the ferry system is probably not cut out for island life.
But the ferries constrain tourist traffic, are you suggesting unfettered access through tunnels to the county for all those tourists???
OMG!! Says it ain’t so!!
Just to throw some actual numbers in here (agnostic to the for/against arguments for road-based island connections):
– Undersea tunnels currently cost in the range of $500M – $2B per mile.
– Above water bridges cost vary even more widely, but are easily 10x cheaper than tunnels. ($50M-$100M/mile is a common range)
As a side note, I believe the concept of an inter-island highway system was floated (no pun intended) in the 1940’s, but never got much traction.
References:
* https://tunnelingonline.com/why-tunnels-in-the-us-cost-much-more-than-anywhere-else-in-the-world/
* https://compassinternational.net/order-magnitude-road-highway-costs/
* https://www.vtpi.org/WSDOT_HighwayCosts_2004.pdf
* https://www.visitsanjuans.com/sites/default/files/uploads/sb/section-7.pdf (pg 7-8 show the conceptual map of a roadway system connecting the San Juans)