2004 Feasibility Study
The feasibility study into a Newfoundland-Labrador fixed link, resulting from the 2003 election promise by newly-elected premier Danny Williams, was released in 2004. It examined causeway, bridge and tunnel options and recommended that a tunnel beneath the Strait of Belle Isle, accommodating a single railway track, would be the only feasible option, given the area's harsh winter weather conditions, the strait's bathymetry (the depth and shape of the sea floor), and the geology of underlying soils.
Electric-powered trains would be loaded on either side and carry cars, buses and transport trucks. The authors of the study estimated that construction, either by tunnel boring or lowering pre-constructed tunnel sections to a trench in the sea floor, is beyond the current technological limit due to the depth of the sea floor and scouring of the strait by icebergs.
The authors also stated that the cost of construction and low traffic levels would not justify the cost. Conceivably, if built with federal aid, the 1949 terms of union might be amended to remove federal subsidies from the federally operated Marine Atlantic ferry service that connects Port-aux-Basques with North Sydney, Nova Scotia and place them instead on the proposed fixed link.
In terms of driving distance, a fixed link would not be favourable for residents of the Maritimes or parts of the Eastern Seaboard of the United States as they would have to drive to Quebec City where bridges cross the St. Lawrence River (there are ferries further downstream), before continuing east along Quebec's Côte-Nord (of the Gulf of St. Lawrence).
Read more about this topic: Newfoundland-Labrador Fixed Link
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