A bridge between Finland and Sweden?
HA!! We’ll all have flying cars before the two cash-strapped welfare states could put together enough money for this massive project…
The Kvarken Council, a cross-border cooperation body, on Thursday ordered its transport working group to look into the possibilities of linking the Finnish and Swedish coasts of the Gulf of Bothnia with a bridge or a tunnel.
A study produced by the council at the end of the 1990s argued that the technical prerequisites for such a link existed. Lennart Holmlund, the chairman of the council, said Thursday that the matter concerned the EU as well as Finland and Sweden. At its narrowest point, the Gulf of Bothnia is about 70km wide.
Even the planned Helsinki-Tallinn tunnel (or was it bridge?) makes a thousand times more sense than this. If even ferry traffic there is not viable without public funding, how could a bridge or tunnel ever be? And for what purpose on earth, between two relatively sparsely populated regions? Wake up, this is Finland, not Dubai.
MM
Comment by Moral minority? — Fri, May 5th, 2006 @ 4:46 pm
I’ve been bugging the Finnish transport ministry about a tunnel to Tallinn for some time but they aren’t all to eager about it, it may happen after 50 years or so though. A Helsinki-Tallinn tunnel with a Maglev track all the way to central Europe would make me spontaneously combust out of joy.
This Sweden-Finland bridge is completely utopistic though.
Comment by Anton — Fri, May 5th, 2006 @ 5:09 pm
Not to mention because there is land-border already and the ferry isint that expensive. The most feasible part for crossing isint that many hundred of kilometres from the land-border either. The only part where there actually should be a tunnel is between Finland, Åland and Sweden, but that isint feasible, and the other scenarios arent practical.
Estonia would be nice though.
Comment by Justen — Fri, May 5th, 2006 @ 5:24 pm
One time, when I was bored, frustrated and had some time at hands in work, I planned a railway tunnel between Helsinki and Oulu. Why tunnel? Because we can connect the two cities along the straight line right through the earth. In this scheme, the train goes “downhill” for the first half of the journey and “uphill” for the second half. You just let the train go free on the downhill part and slow down on the uphill, just compensating the energy losses due to the friction, which are low, especially with the maglev.
Deepest point of the tunnel was around Jyväskylä, something 5000-6000 meters down. Top speed at that point was slightly in the supersonic region, if the frictional losses were negligible (there should be a vacuum in the tunnel). The total travel time Oulu-Helsinki was around 25 minutes.
Now connecting this baby with Anton’s tunnel at Helsinki central station. No more bloody bus ride to Helsinki-Vantaa. And Concorde could bite some dust too, if it was still around.
Comment by Antti (the redneck one) — Fri, May 5th, 2006 @ 5:42 pm
GREAT. A ferry for all the scum that Sweden doesn’t want can come over even faster now without documentation:( Sweden has quite a larger scum quotient compared to Finland. Farmers of Vaasalandia, get those tractors and shotguns ready.
Comment by Hugh Janus — Fri, May 5th, 2006 @ 6:01 pm
I think it’s a good idea. And Phil, before you talk about cash-strapped you should bear in mind that the Finnish and Swedish governments are both running surpluses.
Comment by finnsense — Fri, May 5th, 2006 @ 7:35 pm
I hear the process of developing a flying car has come quite far
Comment by Christian — Fri, May 5th, 2006 @ 8:54 pm
The flying car has been canceled from develoment. The death strike was when it was announced that you needed licence for flying Boeing before you could strap yourself behind the wheel (even thought the flying car would have been only marginally more difficult than normal automobile).
Comment by Justen — Fri, May 5th, 2006 @ 9:02 pm
This project sounds like one of those periodic state-sponsored projects which will be cited as a good investment which will bring down unemployment.
What it really does is entrench state planners in the cozy fiefdoms they’ve created for themselves. Ultimately, it’s the taxpayer who will lose.
Comment by Finnpundit — Fri, May 5th, 2006 @ 9:23 pm
This project sounds like one of those periodic state-sponsored projects which will be cited as a good investment which will bring down unemployment.
For once, I would have to agree with you. A bridge across the Gulf of Bothnia has to be the stupidest plan I’ve heard of in a while, right after Dubya’s fantasies of starting a global thermonuclear war.
Comment by Freeridin' Franklin — Fri, May 5th, 2006 @ 9:35 pm
global thermonuclear war??? Are you refering to Iran? Or just what Iran said it would do with its first Nuke?
Humm. By the way your friends next door are selling Iran Missles that can reach out and touch the EU. Wonderfull guys next door.
Better start on your missile defense system, or dig down deep.
Comment by winter — Fri, May 5th, 2006 @ 9:58 pm
global thermonuclear war???
That’s what you get when you start gleefully nuking other countries, perhaps thinking that you’re playing Raid over Moscow.
Btw, I recall a documentary back in the good old 80s in which they interviewed the guy responsible for the game. He was some right-wing loony who seemed to truly believe in his product.
Comment by Freeridin' Franklin — Fri, May 5th, 2006 @ 10:11 pm
Regarding Raid over Moscow
In addition to googling everything, one should also look it up on Wikipedia these days…
It seems that the game made some waves right here at home back then. Oh my. Still, the controversy (by some communist MP from, guess what, Turku) made it a top seller. Phil would be proud.
Comment by Freeridin' Franklin — Fri, May 5th, 2006 @ 10:21 pm
gleefully nuking other countries,
Ah, so when the first Nuke from Iran goes off, the EU will try to “condem the act”.
Or will the EU offer free dental care as part of a containment package?
I would start digging.
Comment by winter — Sat, May 6th, 2006 @ 1:30 am
Phil, you should really try to invite either the guys behind this Kvarken idea or some person from the Transportation ministry and try to get some publicity for a Helsinki-Tallinn tunnel. I think it’s an awesome idea and I think that if it was put up for a referendum in Finland and Estonia people would want that tunnel, the problem is the few people have even thought of it or know such an alternative or what benefits it could bring.
Mmmkay, just a thought.
Comment by Anton — Sat, May 6th, 2006 @ 10:31 pm
Speaking of the nuclear threat…Well, I’m not afraid of the Iranians. It will take years from them to 1) Enrich their uranium beyond 90%. They have some 160 stage centrifuge cascade now and they are in what, 5% maybe. 2) to develop operating weapon. 3) to develop a weapon, that is still operating after the missile ride and re-entry.
I don’t buy that their clerics or the islamic leadership in general is crazy enough to test the doctrine of mutually assured destruction. Those stories about the paradise and 72 virgins…They don’t take it literally themselves. It is just bedtime stories for simple, sexually frustrated, young males to gain control over them. One tool in the toolbox needed to turn them into suicide bombers. Those damn mufti’s don’t push it too hard if there is a risk their asses will be kicked out of their cozy surroundings. If they really believed in the stuff, they would be the first in line for the walking bomb training.
I’m much more afraid of Russia and U.S. still pointing those missiles towards each other. It is not in the news anymore, but they still do. “They’ll drop few in Leningrad and we’ll die like dogs”, as my old man told me, when I was 6. The last time they were flipping coin on the survival of the civilization was in the 90′s, when somebody at the russian embassy in Oslo did sloppy job and their counterpart of NORAD took a norwegian probe rocket as an approaching ICBM. It was all the way up to Boris Yeltsin to make a quick right decision and save everyone’s day that day. I wouldn’t grant a peace prize for that though.
Comment by Antti (the redneck one) — Sun, May 7th, 2006 @ 12:40 am
Actually the USA does not load the targeting data into any Nuke weapon until just before launch.
Thus your theory that they are pointed at each other is technically not true.
As for the Iranians, they will probably nuke themselves in an accident long before they ever get a working weapon. Come to think of it, that may not be so bad an ending. Question is, if they do Nuke themselves, do they still get 72 Virgins?
Comment by winter — Sun, May 7th, 2006 @ 3:30 am
I don’t buy that their clerics or the islamic leadership in general is crazy enough to test the doctrine of mutually assured destruction.
I don’t think that missile-delivered nukes are the thing to worry about. All you need is a suitcase smuggled into a capital city, or Israel, in order to make a statement, followed by denials that Iran had anything to do with it.
As to their progress on the job, the Pakistanis surprised the world with their alacrity, as well as the Indians. The know-how is available for sale, and there are enough sellers in Russia, China and Europe who would be happy to oblige.
Comment by Finnpundit — Sun, May 7th, 2006 @ 5:19 pm
The whole “suitcase nuke” thing turned out out to be slightly exaggerated, the smallest “portable” nuke is the size of a vending machine.
Comment by Anton — Sun, May 7th, 2006 @ 6:59 pm
Come to think of it, that may not be so bad an ending. Question is, if they do Nuke themselves, do they still get 72 Virgins?
Nah. If you accidentally nuke yourself and fail to take infidels with you, you will enter paradise with 72 right hands (the left being unclean and all).
Comment by Freeridin' Franklin — Sun, May 7th, 2006 @ 7:54 pm
The know-how is available for sale, and there are enough sellers in Russia, China and Europe who would be happy to oblige.
According to the sacred principles of the Free Market everything must be for sale. The protectionist Kommiez across the pond don’t seem to oblige, though.
Comment by Freeridin' Franklin — Sun, May 7th, 2006 @ 8:10 pm
yeah… the closest town to us in Vaasa isn’t Seinäjoki – it’s UmeÃ¥, in Sweden…
…and the ferry is seen as a joke by many – but with some urgent shipments from ABB, Wärtsilä or Scott Health & Safety… sometimes it’s faster going across…
Kvarken (alt. Quarken, swe. Kvarken, fin. Merenkurkku, or North Kvarken as opposed to South Kvarken) is the narrow region in the Gulf of Bothnia separating the Bothnian Bay (the inner part of the gulf) from the Bothnian Sea. The distance from Swedish mainland to Finnish mainland is around 80 km while the distance between the outmost islands is only 25 km. The water depth in the Kvarken region is only around 25 meters. The region also has an exceptional rate of land rising at about 1 cm a year.
On the Finnish side of Kvarken, there is a large archipelago with most of the small islands inhabited. The archipelago is smaller on the Swedish side of the region with much steeper shores. The Kvarken region was historically also important for the delivery of postal mail as the sea was completely frozen from the Swedish to the Finnish coast. This route was then used very frequently under the Swedish rule for delivery of postal mail. The region, with its close proximity to Sweden, played an important role in the Finnish wars against the Soviet Union (Russia).
In the group of islands in the “middle” of the Kvarken region, called swe. Valsörarna — fin. Valassaaret, is a 36 meter high lighthouse designed by Gustave Eiffel. The lighthouse is now automated as most lighthouses are in Finland.
There have been proposals for a bridge across the strait, at a cost of about 1-1.5 billion Euros. There are islands in the strait, and the sum of the lengths of the probably three bridge parts would be about 40 km. The Swedish minister of finance has said it is an interesting thought, but still this idea is decades from completion. There is a debate in the coastal cities on both sides, like Umeå and Vaasa. The official view from the Swedish and Finnish governments is that it is much too expensive.
…and you wouldn’t believe how much they’ve spent on these studies for decades…
…but if we just wait a few thousand of years – we’ll be able to walk over (because of the earth rising)
Comment by FinnFreak — Mon, May 8th, 2006 @ 1:40 pm
But with a bridge the rich pizza king won’t get large subsidies for his boating enterprise (that could be funded from own capital).
Comment by Hugh Janus — Mon, May 8th, 2006 @ 1:55 pm
Heh, I have never quite understood, how that pizza king got his position to begin with. Some lousy 3 euro tax-free ethnic känkky’s (Oulu word for a relatively bad pizza) beat the output of his chain 6-0. Does it have something to do with the mobile phone effect, as one commentator here put it some time ago: “People will order a fresh poop on their livingroom carpet, if they could do it with their phones.”
Comment by Antti (the redneck one) — Mon, May 8th, 2006 @ 2:34 pm
heh, Rabbe is currently expanding his Kotipizza/RAX empire: just last month the first outlet of Kotipizza opened in China, and India and Russia are next to enjoy the “health food” from Vaasa… (yikes!)
MUSIC TV SPECIAL PIZZA
Kyseessä on ensimmäinen kerta maailmanlaajuisesti, kun MTV:n logo näkyy pizzana.
MTV SPECIAL PIZZA on myynnissä vain Suomessa ja Kotipizzassa.
http://www.kotipizza.fi/Default.aspx?id=340328
…annamunkaikkikestää…
Comment by FinnFreak — Mon, May 8th, 2006 @ 2:45 pm
I have some speculation about the gent in question but in the absence of hard proof it could be highly defamatory and he has more money than I : ) But he is “well thought of” (sic) by many.. .even an honorary vice consul for England’s embassy.
As someone who doesn’t like salad, at least the salads at the house of the King are passasble when one is travailing the length and breadth of this fine land and will not entrust the taste buds to yet another Hesburger, “Neste Pulla” and Motor Oil coffee. As good as any chain anyway
Comment by Hugh Janus — Mon, May 8th, 2006 @ 3:07 pm
…and the tomato soup at RAX is actually quite good..!
Well, he’s done quite a bit for the local economy here… heh, unfortunately his shipping endeavours haven’t been nearly as successfull:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RG_Line
Comment by FinnFreak — Mon, May 8th, 2006 @ 3:36 pm
Wow. I forgot to mention “Omenahotelli”.
Shame on me.
Comment by FinnFreak — Mon, May 8th, 2006 @ 3:40 pm
time for the pizza king to open his wallet and not the states.
From VBL:
9.5.2006
RG Line påtvingas avbetalningsplan
Tuffa tag för rederiet i UmeÃ¥. I Vasa fÃ¥r staden pizzaaktier som pant.
Umeå hamn har tvingat en av-
betalningsplan på RG Line. Två miljoner kronor i hamnavgifter skall vara betalda den sista juni.
Enligt Västerbottens Folkblad var alternativet för rederiet att börja betala kontant för varje gÃ¥ng RG 1 lade till i hamnen.
RG Lines vd Börje Lassfolk bekräftar att det finns en betalningsplan.
Även i Vasa hamn finns det en del obetalda avgifter. Ett större problem där torde ändÃ¥ vara Casino Express, som ligger och väntar pÃ¥ en köpare. Den senaste, som var aktuell tidigare i Ã¥r, har dragit sig ur. Men det finns nya spekulanter.
Rederiets likviditetsproblem gör att ett lÃ¥n som Vasa stad är i borgen för inte kan betalas bort i sommar som det var tänkt. Därför fick stadsstyrelsen i gÃ¥r ta emot ytterligare en miljon Kotipizzaaktier som pant.
Comment by Hugh Janus — Tue, May 9th, 2006 @ 8:21 am
Antti, are you implying that the ethnic pizzerias don’t pay taxes?
I love Kotipizza’s pies. Their image-driven franchising though makes me sick. But still, känkkys don’t even stand a chance except for their unbelievably low prices. 2.80e for a decent size pizza in Finland should raise some eyebrows…
Comment by Pave — Sat, May 13th, 2006 @ 6:24 pm
“Antti, are you implying that the ethnic pizzerias don’t pay taxes?”
Noo, there are ethnic känkky’s and tax-free ethnic känkky’s, I just spoke about the latter. Of course, non-tax-free, ethnic 3e känkky would probably be even worse…
Comment by Antti (the redneck one) — Sun, May 21st, 2006 @ 10:39 pm