Connecting Europe and Africa - The Strait of Gibraltar Crossing 

Thanks to Keeps for sponsoring this video! Head to keeps.com/MEGAPROJECTS to get a special offer.

1:35 - Chapter 1 - So close, yet so far 4:50 - Mid roll ads 6:10 - Chapter 2 - A true megaproject 8:05 - Chapter 3 - Back down to earth

0:57 the units of measurement have been switched! It's 14 km or 9 miles instead of the other way around. Still, love your videos Simon!

8-10 billion euros is unironically not a lot of money for a major infrastructure project; that's like, a couple universities and hospitals. Completely within the capability of two sovereign modern European/North African nations to commence. Hell, that's just a few new aircraft carriers or equivalent, and it's a helluva lot more economically profitable than military equipment (unless you're a Raytheon and Lockheed shareholder, I guess).

I never realized how DEEP the Straight is. That's crazy!

I've sailed through the Straits 3 times in the USN. Each time we hit gnarly seas. Like 24 ft waves.

There’s an error at the beginning….9 miles or 14 kilometers. You got it the other way round, just thought I would let you know

My idea for crossing the Strait of Gibraltar would be to build an underwater bridge with enclosed deck, probably at the depth between the two currents to minimise loading, designed to allow for the movement of the tectonic plates. The simplest way to allow for movement would be a longitudinal curve that is designed to be able to change radius slightly while maintaining structural integrity and seal. Tunnels would be bored or blasted from the land at each end to the ends of that undersea bridge. The effective result would be a relatively shallow tunnel.

This would indeed become the biggest mega project of all time. But I think it's never gonna happen. Too deep, too strong current, too large distance, too much political strees between continents, etc...

I think Simon did use Keeps when he was younger. He just got really confused and put it on his chin by mistake 🤣

There's a great 1930's movie about digging a tunnel between New York and Great Britain. Very ahead of its time.

Norway has road tunnels crossing fiords that are not on the bottom but submerged well under seagoing traffic and kept in place with wide spread cable anchors. This concept might work here as well.

Simon, could you please do a similar video on the various proposed undersea tunnels under the Irish Sea between the U.K. and Ireland?

Hey Simon and team, and family. Love all the channels. Whistle while you work.

Great work on this video guys as usual. Well done. Legends

Simon, bang on these videos lately. Very informative.

It would be funny if the bridge got built between British Gibraltar in Europe and Spanish Ceuta in Africa.

All we need are scaled up Hot Wheels ramps and boosters.

@0:59 A small correction: The shortest distance between Morocco and Iberia is approximately 14.3 kilometers (8.9 miles) not 14.3 miles. At its narrowest point, the strait is only around 14 kilometers (8.7 miles) wide. More specific from Tangier(Morocco) the southernmost point of mainland Spain, which is the city of Tarifa.

The Japanese could sort out a tunnel project for this, they are the masters of tunnelling to connect islands or make better road systems…..and they know they have to make these earthquake-proof🤔👍

A couple of thoughts: Oil platforms regularly are used well in excess of the depth of the straits; perhaps such structures could be adapted as bridge supports. Also, maybe a strong cable system anchored to the sea floor could support floating towers for an otherwise normal cable extension bridge; these floating towers could be further connected to one another structurally under the waters of the strait to form in essence one giant partially submerged beam or structural chord acting to reinforce the overall bridge from below and prevent moment developing in pivot points identified with the tower supports against storm and tide lateral forces. This substructure would be connected like the bridge to both shores and would as such as prevent general moment in the entire bridge itself. Also note of course should be taken of the role of strong truss supports in the bridge under either side of the roadbed which not only prevent movement of the roadbed like Galloping Girtie but act to reinforce the structure as well.

I think a tunnel would be best; take inspiration from the Nordic nations of Denmark and Norway to create “floating tunnels” that are also anchored to the seabed.

If we ever attempt to do this with the tunnel route I think we are going to run into pretty unique geological challenges being so close to plate boundaries. Earthquakes are not the only risk and you are going to be dealing with things like super hydrated soils and rocks releasing millions of gallons of water, possible active or fossilized magma intrusions, noxious gas releases, and extreme heat. That's just a few and there could be a bunch more.

Great video Nomis 👍

Would be amazing to see once it’s done!

Re: Keeps - Kudos to the Keeps for the irony of letting Simon promote their products. 😀

Sort of surprised there was no submerged floating tunnel proposal, these are getting more popular

7:53 *You beat me to it -* *No one would want to stop in numerous Hotels now 5½ KM away from a once Sandy Beach !*

Love it that you promote 'Keeps'...unfortunately I am 70+ with all mine follicles intact ! Thankyou Mother( does it go down the female line? )

It is said the Mediterranean was once a salt basin, with the odd dotted lakes where river flowed in. But with rising sea levels, the sea broke through the Gates of Hercules, and eventually through the Bosporus strait to flood the now Black Sea which it is said was once arable land - of which the fable of Noah originates from, some say.

and here we go

2:42 bridge option vs. 3:43 900m deep tunnel... 8:27 1979 tunnel feasibility revisited in 2003

Just saw a picture of Simon with hair and it's is... I'll just say his current look is a vast improvement.

Whatever the plan funding via energy production will be key. Tidal floating generators along its route if simple and efficient could pay for the project yet alone transportation of solar made in Africa and the bridge too. The idea of casinos would increase the upfront costs to high and put off investors, although the idea of flotations and partly submerged tunnels has merit if you could anchor them better.

Probably the most realistic will be a tunnel on the easy sections from both sides and some kind of underwater bridge on the deepest part holding prefabricated concrete tubes that will be dropped on this underwater bridge

In the hypothetical world where we connect the Asian and American road systems and the North and South American road systems, you could drive from South Africa to Argentina

How is this guy on like every channel I watch?

The tunnelproject between Morocco and Spain has been confirmed yesterday. The start will be in May🎉🎉

Crazy. Be the first time the lands were connected since the straight itself. When they invent time travel I am going to go back and visit this spot before its collapse and flooding of the Mediterranean. It must have been a beautiful wonder of the old world and a pathway connecting two continents

1:02 9 km is not 14 miles, It's the other way around. 14 km is just under 9 miles. At points in the distant past, the straight was closed. With such a high evaporation rate, the basin was the lowest area on earth by far. It flooded over many decades after a catastrophic break.

1:28 so close, yet so far 8:02 back down to Earth

I'd make a floating tunnel with cables holding it submerged. Should be relatively cheap and esrthquake proof and largely contructed onshore, just assembled in the water.

Love Gib.. And my Gibraltarian family 👍🏼

I'm just here to say hello.

(People are going to think I'm ADHD and they may be right!) Anyway, on the oil platforms I want to clarify that to the extent such structures extend both above water and are anchored below, oil rigs may offer a path to developing secure footing in extreme support depths in another application. (Also, on the other idea, perhaps the floating tower bridge and connected support structures could be hinged on the sides and open in the middle like the Dutch dike dams to break and pivot in the central sections to one side of the strait or the other in extreme circumstances; ie here instead of trying to always withstand storm surge of sea water flow and storm activity through the straits ('bridge closed temporarily due to inclement weather') and then swung back into place. No need to subject the structure to more wear than necessary.) But again aside from the natural seabed secured platform concept, what I am alternatively suggesting and thought of perhaps another way is some kind of secured artificial floating platform which is independent of the seabed as a base concept (except perhaps for cable securements*) and which supports a raised road and rail bed. Here, in my particular idea, this takes the form of a suspended roadbed on floating tower structures; the whole secured by massive perhaps steel box supports between the towers to keep the whole system stable and all of one piece and adequately submerged to allow sufficient passage. To all appearances and purposes an ordinary suspension bridge above the water, but underneath the bridge is part of a floating or suspended structural system. A type of structural platform if you like, independent of the sea floor. And think of the advantages of engineering a bridge to stand independent of such a geologically unstable area like the straits! With this basic idea of an artificial seabed perhaps progress can be made (or has already been somewhere) on bridging more difficult areas around the world. * On the cables, these could be arranged underneath the structure extending upwards like an upside down extension bridge cable array from the sea floor to the underside of the nonmoveable parts of the bridge, perhaps on both sides like a stabilizer and on both shores to additionally keep the structure stable in the water. IE situated towards the banks of the straits and not intruding into shipping channels; again also submerged at depth. I admit I'm using the information from the excellent video in developing these ideas and have not followed the engineering on Gibraltar to this point. Certainly the engineering solutions to bridging problems are many and really fascinating. Questions of cost? Always a question. OBTW the bridge structure could be engineered to take advantage of the tides with the installation of turbines, perhaps in the lower structural chord element tying the bridge towers together between. Talk about your cheap electricity in Morocco. OH and sales of electric power to offset costs besides the tolls!! Just ideas. Thanks again.

This idea doesn't sound nearly as outrageous as daming up the Nile river, like you described in the last video.

@9 km or 14 miles - That's the other way round Simon.

Thinking like SFIA host Isaac Arthur, European rivers that used to flow into the Mediterranean are course changed and diked to flow through Portugal to the Atlantic. Or from the Danube through Turkey and the Jordan River to the Red Sea. The Suez Canal would extend to southeast of Venice and maybe branches going west to the Atlantic with the river, and mayby east to the Danube. The seafloor would be new land.

The nascent expectation of significant sea level rise provides a renewed selling point for a Gibraltar dam to all dwellers of a huge length of coastline quite dwarfing the dozen miles of the straight. Their potential combined leverage, wow. "Syraccusing Gibraltar", in reference to Archimedes's famous lever quote -- handy should the time come to paint the pitch of that leverage as a cliché.

Transportation by sea is much cheaper than transportation by land. Right now, you can also send cargo from any port in the Med to any other. A bridge would only narrowly funnel a small amount of trade. There would be no real economic benefit to a bridge.

There is a third scenario though. A floating subsea tunnel is also an option i would think? Assuming the currents doesn't make that an improbability.

It’ll never happen for the same reason we still have the Moggill ferry across the Brisbane river. One side of the river is a low socioeconomic area (Riverview) and the other side of the river is a high socioeconomic area (Moggill). Keeping a ferry in operation provides convenient “separation” for the upper crust from us plebs.

I will never get over the fact a bald man is promoting hair loss treatment never change simon

Probably should take a few pages out of the Øresund Bridge, with the artificial island and tunnels. Would visit if made.

Yes, having trains going across instead of loading onto ships would make the whole process cheaper. But surely they have a quite optimized solution for quick transfer of containers from train to ship to train by now?

Inverness to Cape Town may one day be possible via automobile (with two train transit assists) ;) !

Very funny. if anything I would dig the coast to increase the distance.

3:45 Copenhagen Metro!

This must be done yesterday!

hahaha...Simon and his BEARD....Hilarious!

What a brave idea...

A major flaw in the analysis here is that a rail tunnel to Morocco only connects to Morocco, it doesn't functionally connect to the rest of Africa as there is no continental rail network or road network in Africa. Aside from the geography, and infrastructure issues, you have political divisions between countries that don't allow for free movement. Those issues need to be solved before even contemplating a tunnel from Spain to Morocco.

IOW the reasons listed around 8:00 for coastal populations not to like the impact of a Gibraltar dam, essentially reverse when trading a dam intended to change sea level in the Mediterranean, for one made to keep it constant.

What about floating tunnels? Long sections can be built in dry docks with sealed ends. They are then floated out to the appropriate location, attached to the previous section. Cables are then attached to the sections and massive concrete anchors buried into the ocean floor. The sections are submerged by incrementally shortening the cables. Finally, the sealed ends are removed, leaving a continuous tunnel floating at a predetermined depth. For safety, two tunnels could be built parallel with escape tubes from one to the other. Due to being made from slightly flexible materials, floating tunnels are naturally resistant to ocean currents, earthquakes and shifts in the seafloor. They do not need to be near the ocean floor, nor anywhere near shipping traffic. The cables would require maintenance but the tunnels and anchors could be built with redundant connection points so new cables could be fitted and tensioned before the old ones were replaced.

How about looking at the Fehmarnbelt connection?

Suggestion the GPSS Pipeline System now the CLH Pipeline System in Britain its got all the classics WW2, The Cold War and Modern Aviation. It's literally the fuel life line of most of the RAF and major airports in Britain. Best bit unless you know what to look for, you wouldn't even know it exists.

The best option would be an enormous zip line.

"Lets connect Africa to Europe, that sounds like lovely idea" -NOBODY EVER....

Getting my hair back is a mega project

Just watch @RealCivilEngineer come in here and solve it with a dangling road and some very strong shapes 😂

Its always struck me as crazy that African raw materials are freighted to African East Coast then shipped to China made into goods then shipped to Europe. Way more sustainable to cocreate manufacturing in North Africa and freight direct to Europe. I suspect part of the problem is USA doesn't want that level of cooperation between Europe Africa and Asia?

Your acting is getting better, lol

cool idea, but let's be real, this wouldnt jump start trade with the entire continent, the distances are just too vast. container ships are way too efficient anyway, but i could imagine this doing wonders for the maghreb. algeria could finally be linked more closely to southern europe, if they were willing. tunisia would also still benefit from it probably, so it's not just morocco. but let's be real, none of the other countries would care about it in africa.

Although the mega Dam across the Gib Straights is absurd, image all the archeology dropping the Med by 200m would reveal - not least the wreck of the Britanic at 110m!

I’ve heard structural wood has been working well lately. They should make it out of wood.🤣🤪😂

Now to be fair it is a big prodject but the norwegan megaproject is bigge due to we are trying to build a mega inderground tunnel from stavanger to trondheim if i remeber rigt

Came here to mention the “9km or 14 miles” error, but there are already 2 comment threads on it. Damn!

I like the dam idea just because of the sheer insanity of it. Except for the lowering of the sea level by so much. But, it could control the rising sea level problem thats a problem in places like Venice, and return the sea level to the 1900 level or something like that.

Don't hesitate to turn the volume up, lol

Meanwhile we've not been able to build a bridge for the 100.000 people per day commuting between the center of Amsterdam and Amsterdam North, which is a ferry ride of about 200 meters...

you need a new channel for projects like this: Gigaprojects 🤔🤷😏👍

Given density of human habitation in Sahara area of Africa, there appears to be no economic reason to build a bridge to support trade. Expect ship borne trade will be more effective

We need evidence of Simon with hair

Honestly I think just building a rail tunnel similar to the channel tunnel on the shallower portion is the smartest way to go. You could have a car transporter train if necessary but going to 24 lanes I frankly absurd.

Since the UKk is still (after 3 years) having difficulties sending sausages from England to Northern Ireland I think it might be fair to say British bridge/tunnel solution won't be happening.

Why not suspend a tunnel above the seabed? It seems like it would solve the problems raised, albeit by doing something never before attempted.

Whistler promoting anti hair loss products is the most youtube thing ever.

Imagine 2 modern 5+ million residents city's across from each other ( Barcelona and Dubai example) There would be a bridge and a tunnel already built 30y ago. Think of Euro tunnel. There just isn't enough money on the African side. .....and just think of the tide energy plant.

The best option, connecting Algeciras to Ceuta

I actually liked the island idea

It'd be awsome to drive from Terra Del frago to cape town, maybe I should do that saddly ain't no ferry between Alaska and russia

How many channels does this guy have???

What about an underwater bridge? The suports wouldn't be too high and the tunnel too deep. Build it in sections and sink it like the Denmark tunnel.

floating bridge made of sections with archways so shipping can pass underneath

Wouldn't it be easier to build such bridge from Sicily to Tunisia? Sure more than twice longer, but in shallow waters and with less traffic.

40 Views? Last time I was this early, Simon had hair!

We need to see a pic of him with hair!

The thing is: the ones who'd benefit the most can't pay for it; the one's who can pay for it wont because there is really only downsides for them.

A wee bit skeptical are We Simon !:-)

Those price tags feel like Pocket change compared to HS2