Ross Eccles
artist - architect - concepts designer
creative thinker since 1937
GB.1.1
THE NORTHERN LOOP
CONCEPT OUTLINE
Introduction
The Northern Loop - is a vision for a logistically efficient, automated transportation corridor linking three ports. These ports are located at Morcambe Bay, The Humber and Teeside in the North of England.
The Northern Loop is designed to provide long-term benefits, to the 15 million inhabitants of the North of England, who have long suffered from inadequate transportation and intercommunications infrastructure.
The Northern Loop is the logistical backbone, for a series of carbon-neutral New Towns and Enterprise Centres. The Loop can be extended and has inbuilt flexibility to accommodate millions of people on well-serviced, flood free lands.
The Northern Loop comprises five basic elements:
1. Three Container Ports - Accessed by sea-locks and interlinked
2. An Automated Transportation Route - Connecting the Automated ContainerPorts.
3. Protection from Climate Change Flooding of the Humberside and Teesside Regions
4. A Morcambe Bay Crossing - Connecting isolated Cumbria & Northern Ireland, with the Lancashire and Merseyside Coastal Regions.
5. Linking Ireland to Scotland or England via rail tunnel
Good infrastructure improves efficiency and is cost-beneficial. As Political Risk is a primary concern of infrastructural investment, "Political Will" is a necessary prerequisite to the realisation of this Vision!
The North of England was once at the heart of an Industrial Revolution that changed the World. Efficient trading generated wealth. Key to success, was the encouragement of an inventive mindset and creation of an efficient infrastructural logistics chain. The construction of Toll Roads, Canals, Railways and Ports, allowed the efficient importation of raw materials and, the export of goods to all parts of the Empire and the rest of the world.
NORTHERN LOOP CONTENTS
GB.1.1. - CONCEPT OUTLINE
GB.1.2. - CONNECTING NORTHERN IRELAND WITH SCOTLAND
GB.1.3. - CONNECTING N. IRELAND AND ISLE OF MAN WITH CUMBRIA
GB.1.4. - NORTH WEST GATEWAY PORT
GB.1.5. - HUMBER GATEWAY PORT & CITY
GB.1.6. - NORTH EAST GATEWAY PORT & TEESIDE
The Northern Loop
Location Plan
The Northern Loop
Infrastructural Logistics Plan
GB.1.2.
CONNECTING NORTHERN IRELAND / SCOTLAND BY RAIL TUNNEL
The Northern Loop Extension
Glasgow & Ireland Link
The Northern Loop Extension
Scotland Ireland Rail Tunnel Extension
The Northern Loop Extension
North Channel Marine Contours
The Northern Loop Extension
Northern Ireland / Scotland Rail Tunnel Corsewall Link Plan
The Northern Loop Extension
Scotland / Ireland Rail Tunnel
Corsewall Link Location
The Northern Loop Extension
Larne Channel Tunnel Terminal
The Northern Loop Extension
Northern Ireland / Scotland Rail Tunnel
Ballantrae Freight Terminal
GB.1.3.
CONNECTING NORTHERN IRELAND / CUMBRIA BY RAIL TUNNEL
The Northern Loop
Isle of Man / Northern Ireland Rail Interconnector
The Northern Loop
Irish Sea Marine Contours for Rail Tunnels
The Northern Loop
Isle of Man Rail Terminal
The Northern Loop
Isle of Man to Cumbria Rail Tunnel
The Northern Loop
Cumbria Rail Tunnel Terminal
GB.1.4.
North West Gateway Port
Regional Logistics Plan
The Northern Loop
Morecambe Bay Crossing and Port
North West Gateway
Container Port Layout Plan
Morecambe Bay - View from Fleetwood
Port History Note
The Romans, who were brilliant engineers, built a Port known as Portus Sistuntiorum, in this location some 2000 years ago. So the Concept is far from new. Only the scale and materials available are different.
The Romans linked their Port with York, taking advantage of the favourable Pennine Gap route through the Pennine Chain. The Northern Loop Transportation Corridor follows a similar route.
The Northern Gateway Port is surrounded by an earth and rock bund wall of sufficient height to protect against storms and rising sea levels for a minimum 100 years. Entrance to the Port is via a shipping channel 20 metres deep, linking with the Morecambe Bay Lune Deep. Access to the Port Area is via Sea Locks, the larger of which is 500m long x 70m wide and 20m deep. This is similar in size to the new Ijmuiden Sea Lock protecting Amsterdam.
The Port is designed to be powered by liquid hydrogen piped from underground Salt Cavern Storage, Preesall.
Hydrogen is generated off-peak from the many offshore turbines located close by.