The article talks about submarine collisions, but a more likely scenario would seem to be having the tunnel snagged by the anchor line from a passing ship. Said anchors are already the bane of undersea cables, and in this case could behave like a giant cable saw against the concrete structure.
I wonder what countermeasures could be deployed against anchors? Some kind of outer trellis to keep the chain away from the structure and then designed to break-away in a predictable way if the anchor snags? Surely this isn't an impossible challenge.
-But this scenario would require the ship to lower anchor in an area where doing so is a big no-no, while under speed and where waters are generally too deep for anchoring, anyway.
I don't think E39 will ever be ferry-free - the project is simply too outrageously expensive, even by our petroboosted economy's standards.
However, it would make sense to improve the road - I drive parts of E39 almost every day, and in places the posted limit is 50km/h (31mph). It goes through populated areas - so there are zebra crossings. On a European backbone road. Sigh.
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[ 3.1 ms ] story [ 22.7 ms ] threadI don't think E39 will ever be ferry-free - the project is simply too outrageously expensive, even by our petroboosted economy's standards.
However, it would make sense to improve the road - I drive parts of E39 almost every day, and in places the posted limit is 50km/h (31mph). It goes through populated areas - so there are zebra crossings. On a European backbone road. Sigh.