'Chunnel' Proposed Linking Spain and Morocco

[Frodo]

A 'Chunnel' for Spain and Morocco'
High-Speed Train Line Below Strait of Gibraltar Gains Traction

By Craig Whitlock
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, January 28, 2007; Page A15

TANGIER, Morocco -- From the bustling waterfront of this African port city, Europe appears tantalizingly close: The coast of Spain shows on the horizon just nine miles away. Despite decades of dreaming, no one has been able to bridge the physical divide that opened between the two continents more than 5 million years ago, forming the geological bottleneck to the Mediterranean Sea.

In recent months, however, the governments of Morocco and Spain have taken significant steps to move forward with plans to bore a railroad under the muddy bottom of the Strait of Gibraltar. If built, the project would rank among the world's most ambitious and complex civil engineering feats, alongside the Panama Canal and the Channel Tunnel between Britain and France.

A Gibraltar transportation link has adorned official drawing boards for a quarter-century. After years of slow-moving studies and geological tests, Spain and Morocco gave the project fresh momentum last fall by hiring a Swiss engineering firm to draft blueprints for an underwater rail route. Numerous obstacles remain, and a final decision on whether to build is still a few years away, but optimistic engineers say the project could be completed by 2025.

Government officials on both sides of the Mediterranean say the tunnel would give the economies of southern Europe and North Africa an enormous boost. But the project is being driven at least as much by intangible benefits: the prospect of uniting two continents that culturally and socially remain a world apart despite their geographic proximity.

"We've already done a tremendous amount of work to make this dream come true, to go from an idea -- a concept that is just philosophical -- into something we can transform into reality," said Karim Ghellab, Morocco's minister of transportation. "It's not easy to predict a date yet, but it is a project that will happen."

[Bono]

What's the point?

[Tetro Kornbluth]

What's the point?

Clearly to make sure that all Portugal will be soon infected by illegal muslim aliens, obviously.

[afleitch]

What's the point?

Clearly to make sure that all Portugal will be soon infected by illegal muslim aliens, obviously.

Again?

Of course, genetically Portugal maintains more than just a few traces of their caliphate days so any future change in the characteristics of the Portuguese genetic blue would be minimal.

Truth be told, it's an intereting idea and one that should be given serious consideration. It is important to welcome nations such as Morocco and Tunisia into the European sphere of influence.

[Tetro Kornbluth]

What's the point?

Clearly to make sure that all Portugal will be soon infected by illegal muslim aliens, obviously.

Again?

Of course, genetically Portugal maintains more than just a few traces of their caliphate days so any future change in the characteristics of the Portuguese genetic blue would be minimal.

Truth be told, it's an intereting idea and one that should be given serious consideration. It is important to welcome nations such as Morocco and Tunisia into the European sphere of influence.

Ehh... They weren't Illegal the first time.

[ag]

What's the point?

Clearly to make sure that all Portugal will be soon infected by illegal muslim aliens, obviously.

Again?

Of course, genetically Portugal maintains more than just a few traces of their caliphate days so any future change in the characteristics of the Portuguese genetic blue would be minimal.

Truth be told, it's an intereting idea and one that should be given serious consideration. It is important to welcome nations such as Morocco and Tunisia into the European sphere of influence.

Ehh... They weren't Illegal the first time.

Hm. Was invading (without a provocation) and destroying the innocent Visigothic and Suevian states legal ?  Something should be said about the war crimes here

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

<sarcasm>
Given the great success of the Chunnel financially, it's no surprise that others would seek to duplicate it.
</sarcasm>

While it is technically doable, I doubt that the volume of Moroccan-European trade is great enough to justify the cost of building it.  The same goes for the proposed North Channel Tunnel between Ireland and Scotland

[Platypus]

It wouldn't be a chunnel, it;d be a strunnel or a tunnait or something.

[KEmperor]

Why can't you just call it the Gibraltar Tunnel or something.  Must we give everything a cutesy name?

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Why can't you just call it the Gibraltar Tunnel or something.  Must we give everything a cutesy name?

How about the Atlasian Tunnel?

[cp]

The Gibrunnel!

[Platypus]

Why can't you just call it the Gibraltar Tunnel or something.  Must we give everything a cutesy name?

Shut Up, kimpypo

[GMantis]

Wouldn't be a bridge generally cheaper or is the strait too wide for one?
As for the traffic, one must think more broadly: it would link not only Spain and Morocco, but two whole continents. There is of course a link between Europe and Africa, but it is far longer and passes through some of the politically unstable countries in the world. So the tunnel definitely has potential.

[MODU]

Wouldn't be a bridge generally cheaper or is the strait too wide for one?
As for the traffic, one must think more broadly: it would link not only Spain and Morocco, but two whole continents. There is of course a link between Europe and Africa, but it is far longer and passes through some of the politically unstable countries in the world. So the tunnel definitely has potential.

Too wide, and the bridge vertical supports would be too deep in the water to make it economically feasible.  With the size and volume of ships passing through the straight, the bridge would have to be suspended high off the water, and the supports would need to be unusually wide apart to accommodate the traffic volume below.  On the other hand, a tunnel wouldn't be geologically sound either, due to the rocky composition and depth that the tunnel would have to go.  Isn't there a fault line in that area as well?

[Padfoot]

This proposal seems to be a much better deal for Spain than for Morocco.  The small Spanish exclave of Ceuta is located on the African side of the Strait of Gibraltar.  Morocco insists that Ceuta is in its territory however all governmental control lies with Spain.  Also, Google Earth doesn't even recognize this as a disputed boundary which it usually marks in orange or red (West Bank, Gaza Strip, Kashmir, Western Sahara ect.)  Building this tunnel would likely strengthen Spanish ties to Ceuta and weaken Morocco's claim to it even further.