Lord of the Dance
Plans for bridge between Northern Ireland and Scotland to be scraped
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Plans for bridge between Northern Ireland and Scotland to be scraped

PLANS to build a bridge or tunnel between Northern Ireland and Scotland have been scraped, according to reports.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been an avid supporter of the idea to create a transport link across the Irish Sea.

However the Sunday Telegraph reports that the plan will be shelved for the foreseeable future.

Johnson has regularly mooted the idea of the transport link as part of a wider plan to boost connectivity across Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

As a result, Network Rail chairman Sir Peter Hendy was asked to conduct a feasibility study into the proposal.

The results are due to be published this week, however a government source told the Sunday Telegraph that the plan is a non-starter, at least for now.

"Hendy has examined if this is affordable and practical and he concludes it would be technically very challenging at the moment," the source told the paper.

"That's not to say it won't become viable at some point in the future, but at the moment it would be very, very difficult and expensive."

Last year, Scotland's Transport Secretary Michael Matheson branded the idea a "vanity project" that would "waste significant money".

And two years ago, Chris Wise, the engineering designer of the 2012 Olympic velodrome, said putting a price on the project before designs were in place was "bonkers".