Here is a report that was just published looking at the feasibility of a fixed transport link between Great Britain and Northern Ireland across the Irish Sea. It is part of a study known as the Union Connectivity Review, but according to the report, this idea has been floating around since at least the middle of the 1800's. This recent report claims to be the most rigorous of the bunch though.

What they discovered is that it would be -- you guessed it -- super expensive. Somewhere in the range of £209 billion for a tunnel crossing and £335 billion for a bridge crossing. And it would take some 30 years before something like this could be operational when you consider planning, design, construction, and the various legal processes that something like this would require.

So the recommendation was to stop and do nothing. But if any of you are curious about what it would take to build across the Irish Sea, here's your chance.

This 12-meter 3D-printed stainless steel bridge was recently erected in Amsterdam. As is par for the course, some people hate it and some people love it. I’m in the latter camp.

Designed by Joris Laarman Lab in collaboration with MX3D and Arup (engineering), the bridge was printed off-site over a 6 month period and then craned into place.

3D printing stuff isn’t new; but it is interesting to see the technology being used for this real world application. Supposedly it’s the first 3D-printed stainless steel bridge. There are claims out there for other materials.

What is also interesting is that the entire bridge has been outfitted with sensors so that things like pedestrian usage, corrosion, and load changes can be measured going forward.

Construction is generally a messy process. And it’s kind of amazing how little it has changed over the years. I don’t think that there’s any question that this represents the future of building.

Images: Thea van den Heuvel via Dezeen

The E39 highway in Norway runs along the west coast of the country and connects Kristiansand in the south to Trondheim in the north. There's also a ferry connection to Denmark that forms part of the route. The entire highway (excluding the ferry south to Denmark) is about 1,100 km. But it takes about 21 hours to drive it because Norway's dramatic fjords (see above photo) mean that there are seven ferry crossings along E39. The Norwegian government wants to transform the route into a ferry-free highway, which would dramatically reduce travel times. But this presents a number of extremely difficult engineering challenges -- some of which haven't been solved yet. You can learn about a number of them in the below video from The B1M. If you can't see it below, click here. It's a fascinating video.

Photo by Christiann Koepke on Unsplash