Posted on 04/29/2006 6:15:51 PM PDT by blam
'Afro-tunnel' may still be a bridge too far
By Jon Clarke and Colin Freeman
(Filed: 30/04/2006)
Like every other great plan to link one continent with another, it has spent an age gathering dust. A bridge between Africa and Europe has been dreamt of since the Moorish conquest of southern Spain, but the political will and hard cash to build it have always been lacking.
Now, in an effort to overcome that inertia, regional officials in southern Spain have turned to an eccentric American architect. Eugene Tsui, whose oddball designs have attracted controversy, has been commissioned by officials in Cadiz, who have grown impatient after almost 20 years of dithering by the Spanish and Moroccan governments.
The move has, however, horrified many in southern Spain - including British expatriates - who fear that a bridge would lead to a huge surge in illegal immigration from Africa. So far, however, they have been able to take comfort in the hope that Mr Tsui's project - like so many others - will get no further than the drawing board. For it is fair to say that, even compared with other international civil engineering projects, his brainchild is on the ambitious side.
Dubbed the "Afro-tunnel", it envisages nine miles of bridges and tunnels, up to 24 lanes wide, connected to a floating island three miles across, with a vast windfarm, a shopping and leisure complex, waterfalls, artificial hills and a marina. There would be lanes for those who wish to walk, bicycle or "ride camels and horses".
There is also the small question of the £5.4 billion price tag - which, so far, no one has offered to pay. The European Union, normally a dependable bankroller of such schemes, already has a long-stalled Spanish-Moroccan application on its desk, for which it has refused to cough up.
To all this must be added Mr Tsui's unconventional taste in design. One of his projects, a globular earthquake-proof house in California, was described as "like a sea creature on steroids" by bemused local newspapers.
Only slightly less eye-catching was his appearance when unveiling his blueprint to the regional authorities in Cadiz last month - he turned up wearing a bizarre outfit like a space suit. For those who dream of the tourism and trade benefits that the "Afro-tunnel" might bring, Mr Tsui is worth a try. "It is a lot more than just a bridge but a whole cultural scheme," said Mariano Alcalde, an engineer in Tarifa, the town at the Spanish end of the link. "The mayor has supported it the whole way and has already been speaking to both the Andalucian and Spanish authorities. Eugene is due back in July to try and take this on further."
Leaving each coast on a floating bridge, traffic would descend into a tunnel suspended to a maximum depth of 650ft underwater, which would allow shipping through the strait, then rise to the central island. Electricity generated by the 150 windmills and 80 tidal turbines on the island would pay for the bridge many times over, Mr Tsui said. His design leaves currents undisturbed, minimising the impact on marine ecology. Even the scheme does not come to fruition, Cadiz officials say it shows a way around the environmental problems that have dogged previous designs.
There has not yet been any official comment from the Moroccan or Spanish governments on Mr Tsui's plan.
Q. What runs through the Afro Tunnel?
A. The Soul Train.
Q- Who is the engineer?
A- Don Cornelius
LOL
All I can say is...WHY?
Just imagine, riding a camel 650 ft. under the Strait of Gibraltar! LOL
My thought's exactly.
Yeah, right. This'll happen when hell freezes over. Just what a cash strapped Europe needs and wants - a stream of new immigrants without education and full of diseases and dispair.
Can it survive a cat-5 hurricane?
That picture must be So Cal--between the palm trees and the weird architecture. I lived there for years and never saw that house. Where is it?
BUILD IT! BUILD IT!
So what? They'll just be doing the jobs Spaniards simply won't do......and immigrants add vibrancy and diversity wherever they go......not to mention they'll outbreed their host country, demand welfare, and drag down the nation.
Isn't it wonderful what importing poverty can do?
I think of it as a bridge to Nowhere.....
What are they worried about!!!!.....The immigrants would only be comming to do the jobs that the Brits don't want to do!
There goes the 'hood!
For a lot less money they could just hand out free airplane tickets to anyone who wants them, in the capital cities of West Africa, so that the illegal immigrants can fly to Spain. They have a much more difficult task getting across the Sahara than Mexicans do getting across the desert in Arizona.
More importantly, does it have enough Heineken for
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