Aviatrix

Yep - so much so that I have now disabled picture viewing in my personal settings, just so I won't be bombarded by all the clutter posted in this thread.

oscietra

An nice piece from Halcrow setting out how Thames Hub will create an integrated hub for Britain:

http://www.halcrow.com/thames-hub/pd...hub_vision.pdf

Jimmie76

And for completeness it should be pointed out that Halcrow are partners in this idea. Interesting to note that their airport is beyond their new £5bn Thames barrier and therefore could flood.

Stez

And not one mention about birds...

Also, how will the windfarm in the Thames will affect flight?

Jimmie76

I noticed that, but I didn't want to be the one to say it.

Jimmie76

Ticking timebomb under Boris Island the standard have picked up on the SS Richard Montgomery.

alanR

That has been the killer for every estuary airport plan since Noah built his ark.

stut

Folks,

A gentle reminder to keep this thread on topic, please. Am happy for a bit of banter on the board, but let's keep it good natured and on topic.

stut
Moderator
UK & Ireland

alanR

Tories call for third and fourth runway at Heathrow

NATS chief Richard Deakin: Airports at Heathrow and the Thames Estuary 'just wouldn't work'

oscietra

The SS Montgomery is a red herring.

It's been situated near one of the world's busiest shipping lanes for over fifty years and has never caused a problem; you can see how close oil tankers come to it in this picture:

http://www.maritimejournal.com/__dat...unk-Barker.JPG

It's long overdue for proper disposal; as the hull breaks up the munitions could spill out. Thames Hub would be a splendid opportunity to justify the required investment to deal with the Montgomery; quite the opposite from being a reason not to build the Thames Hub it's an ideal opportunity to address this long overdue matter.

The Montgomery is really a non-issue.

It's a shame the naysayers can't look beyond narrow politics to the broader strategic national need.

Jimmie76

Erm but that tanker looks a long way off to me. The tanker is I'm guessing actually quite large in real life, but that picture makes it look smaller, leading me to guess that the depth of field on that picture is making it look closer than it actually is.

So once we've held a public enquiry at a potential cost of more £100m and 6+ years (working on the T5 figures) and by some miracle they've sorted out:
.

• How we avoid ruining more than a few ecosystems by culling all the migrating birds that show up in the area and those that actually live there.
• How we find some magic way to address all the problems outlined by NATS above.
• And all the other problems listed in this thread.
• Then we eventually get round to the possibility of trying to clear that wreck out of the way - who knows it might have self detonated by then.

So assuming we get a public enquiry started next year that means that the earliest the green light could be given is 2019/2020 and that's before we consider how many years it would take to actually fix the problems listed above? Also how long it takes to build is another consideration if this Global Warming Sea levels will rise stuff is to be believed the whole thing could be under water by then or regularily flooded by storm surges.

I'm all for more airport capacity and believe it is in the national interest to have it, I just don't believe that Boris Island is the answer.

oscietra

...note that planning for a Third Runway also requires a new Public Enquiry as the previously obtained permissions have lapsed.

Ways can be found to overcome every objection your raise, if the political and private sector will exists to do so.

My guess is there will be a secon runway at STN sharpish, a "move" of the existing second parallel runway at LGW to permit simultaneous operations, and get round the existing council-enforced 2019 restriction, and the commencement of a public enquiry into a privately funded Thames Hub (which you shouldn't keep calling "Boris Island" as that was a different scheme) which could start being in service (with two runways) by 2020-ish.

Reason077

Thing is, if you're going to build the Thames Hub anyway, then spending money on STN or LGW is redundant. Those airports have plenty of free capacity within their current infrastructure.

Aviatrix

It's all pie in the sky.... and 99.99 per cent of the people here seem to agree it's pie in the sky. Why do folks keep rising to the bait from the one person who doesn't?

Reason077

Thames Hub is an ambitious project, but more likely to happen than a 3rd runway at Heathrow. Technical challenges can be overcome. Political ones are more difficult.