TCEP 171: Submerged Floating Tube Bridge (SFTBs) Explained
In this episode of The Civil Engineering Podcast, I talk to Professor Malcolm Chrisp, who is the Head of the School of Energy, Infrastructure & Society, at Heriot-Watt University. Joining him today are five of his master's level students who have been helping him explore a possible Celtic Crossing, a submerged floating tube bridge linking Scotland and Northern Ireland. They are Eoin MacDonald, Dan Marek, Joel Meggs, Rory Saunders, and Gavin Mackay. Engineering Quotes: Here Are Some of the Questions I Ask Our Guests: Tell us more about the "floating tube project" — what it is, why you deem it important, and what your objectives were with this project. What are some of the design considerations you had for this project, and why did you choose to use an SFTB (submerged floating tube bridge)? What are the history of SFTBs and some of the currently ongoing international projects and research that is being done on it? Why did you set out the two towns on either coast, and what was the process behind the decision to curve the SFTB to avoid Beaufort's Dyke? Which environmental bodies are involved in the process and what are some of the areas of the scientific importance of this project? How did you engage with stakeholders and national politicians to come up with a design that suited the needs of all those involved? What is one thing you took away from this project and experience that will be beneficial to you and your engineering career? Here Are Some Key Points Discussed in This Episode About the Submerged Floating Tube Bridge Project: The Submerged Floating Tube Bridge project forms part of the final year project for some of the students studying Master of Engineering in Civil Engineering and Structural Engineering at Heriot-Watt University. The proposed submerged floating tube bridge linking Scotland and Northern Ireland is a key opportunity for businesses in political development, and the fixed link between the two islands would be a potential major investment in the future. The key objective for the students is to push them into areas of knowledge that they haven’t previously been exposed to. They set up checking processes and working in the same way as professional practices do, as well as connecting with the communities and judging the project impact on them. The major design consideration for the project is the impact of the weather and the depth of the crossing. The Irish Sea is famously rough, with high waves and very strong winds. Typically, the crossing gets down to about a 150 meters and toward the Scottish side, there’s a big trench that goes a further 150 meters down. It has also been used as a munitions dump from World War II, so there are quite a few unexpected bombs down there. The Submerged Floating Tube Bridge has been around for a long time and was been first patented in the UK in 1886. It wasn’t really thought of again until the ’60s when a couple of Norwegian engineers were brought together for a feasibility study that managed to design a 1,500-meter crossing in Norway. In 1980, four top Norwegian contractors were funded by the Norwegian public to design a 1,400-meter long bridge that was 150 meters deep. They were then asked to create large-scale models of these SFTBs, where after research was conducted to ensure there were no overload issues or any significant danger. In the mid-1990s, an independent group of internationally recognized scientists further confirmed that it was safe to use. In 2014, the design and possible construction of an SFTB was commissioned. In terms of geographical and topographical considerations, there were a number of different options considered for the towns to span.