An airport on an island? - hmm
The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, has suggested that a new London airport could be built on an artificial island in the Thames estuary.
This sounds like a sensible suggestion - but there is a BUT.
On the plus side, it would remove the need for a third runway at Heathrow - a project that just about everyone to the west of London opposes.
Also, presumably planes would take off and approach the runway over water, so this would mean (ideally) that very few people would be subjected to the noise and fumes in their homes.
Both are excellent reasons for supporting the concept.
So here is the BUT.
Island airports are not unknown elsewhere in the world. The one I am familiar with is in the middle of the huge bay at Kingston, Jamaica. Strung across the bay is a series of islets, known as the Palisadoes, joined by a narrow causeway. They form an enormous natural harbour, stretching for about eight miles to the infamous Port Royal, the former capital of Jamaica and a name familiar from many a pirate saga.
The airport is located on one of these islands, about half way along. You can see the runway in this Google photo, jutting out on an artificial extension into the sea.
The problem is that whenever there is a hurricane, or even a severe storm, the roadway becomes flooded. Sometimes the runway itself becomes unusable. So we have the bizarre situation that emergency supplies cannot be flown into Kingston after a hurricane because the airport is inaccessible from the city.
Now the Thames estuary has, as we all know, a problem with surge tides. Indeed the Thames Barrier was built to protect London from flooding. The worrying thing is that the barrier is being raised with increasing frequency. Before 1990 it was only used once or twice a year. In 2003 it was raised 14 times.
As I understand it, there are two main flood threats to London. The first is caused by the way the country is slowly tilting, with the south east of England slipping downwards. The second threat comes from melting Arctic ice.
Sea levels are rising, and at a fairly unpredictable rate. I would love to believe that engineers could find a solution and build an island that would be above any flood levels, with access routes that would still function in severe weather.
Am I right to be sceptical?
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The 'plan' looks to be Foulness revisited - at one point a 'third London Airport' was seriously scheduled for Foulness Island in Essex (it was to be called Maplin Airport). It was eventually taken off the develoipment list in the 1970s because of concerns about vulnerability to weather conditions. Attention then turned to Wing (Between Milton Keynes and Aylesbury) but that too was abandoned.
I note this comment in todays Echo (Southend)
Veteran Southend Lib Dem councillor Alan Crystall, an early member of the Defenders of Essex pressure group formed to oppose an airport on Maplin Sands, said: "I couldn't believe it when I saw the latest report.
"I think Boris Johnson should be thrown in the Tower of London and they should throw away the keys."
Eg.
Morner N, ‘Estimating future sea level changes from past records’, Global and Planetary Change.
Jevrejeva S et al, ‘Nonlinear trends and multiyear cycles in sea level records’, Journal of Geophysical Research, vol 111, C09012 (2006)
Also, with every report they produce the IPCC seem to be reducing their estimates of sea level increases. The first report (in 1990) put estimated 367 centimetres, the second (1995) report 124 centimetres, the third (2001) report 77 centimetres, and now the fourth Assessment Report estimates 59 centimetres.
Indeed, the barrier was designed predominantly to protect London from floods. However, it has been raised predominatnly to keep water in!
I don't undersatnd about keeping water IN - can you explain more please?
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